by Donald Eng
HARTFORD, CT — Attorney General William Tong has joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general and the governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania in filing a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in support of Illinois against what he called “President (Donald) Trump’s unlawful, unconstitutional, and undemocratic deployment of the National Guard without approval from the state’s governor.”
According to the brief, Trump’s actions break the law and threaten one of America’s most important principles — that the military must remain under civilian control — while also threatening state sovereignty and core constitutional principles of federalism.
“Trump is deploying American soldiers against American families on American soil, and that is both extremely dangerous and plainly illegal,” Tong said. “We’re fighting back in courts across the country to protect public safety, our constitution and our state sovereignty.”
In recent months, the Trump administration has repeatedly ordered the National Guard into communities throughout the country to usurp the role of local law enforcement. Starting in Los Angeles, then Washington, D.C., the to Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois, according to Tong’s office.
The coalition’s brief argues that this violates the Constitution and federal law. The brief urges the appeals court to reject the Trump administration’s request to move forward with the deployment, arguing that using federal troops in civilian communities is unlawful and harms both public safety and trust.
The group also argues that turning the military into a domestic police force would blur the line between civilian and military power — the very abuse the founders sought to prevent.
On Saturday, although it allowed for the federalization of the Guard during the pendency of the stay request, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit denied the Trump administration’s request for an immediate administrative stay of the portion of the district court’s decision that barred the deployment of any federalized National Guard in Illinois.
Tong is calling on the court to deny the Trump administration’s request for a broad stay pending appeal, which would allow troops to be deployed to Chicago.
In filing the brief, Tong joined the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. The governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania also joined the filing.