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By GENE JOHNSON and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press
The deployment of National Guard troops on the streets of Washington faces challenges in two courts on Friday — one in the nation’s capital and another in West Virginia — while across the country a judge in Portland, Oregon, will consider whether to let President Donald Trump deploy troops there.
The hearings are the latest developments in a head-spinning array of lawsuits and overlapping rulings prompted by Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities over fierce resistance from mayors and governors. Deployment remains blocked in the Chicago area, where all sides are waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to allow it.
Here’s what to know about legal efforts to block or deploy the National Guard in various cities.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, set a hearing Friday to consider whether to grant District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb ‘s request for an order that would get more than 2,000 Guard members off the streets of Washington.
In August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the city — though the U.S. Justice Department itself says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.
Within a month, more than 2,300 National Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling the city under the command of the Secretary of the Army. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist in patrols.
It Is unclear how long the deployments will last, but attorneys from Schwalb’s office said Guard troops are likely to remain in the city through at least next summer.
“Our constitutional democracy will never be the same if these occupations are permitted to stand,” they wrote.