President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his administration would take over the District of Columbia Police and also use 800 soldiers from the National Guard and new federal law enforcement units in the capital of the country.
“This is Liberation Day in DC, and we are going to take back our capital,” Trump said at a press conference of the White House, flanked by Minister of Defense Pete Hegseeth, attorney -general PAM Bondi and other senior officials of the administration. “It will be a model. And then we will also look at other cities. But other cities study what we do,” said Trump. “We are going to have a safe, beautiful capital and it will happen very quickly.”
Democratic leaders responded with their usual eloquence. “Violent crime in Washington, DC is at a permanent year old low point. Donald Trump has no basis for taking over the local police. And zero credibility about the matter of rights and order. Glokt,” Housem leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., posted on X.
Repeat the same point of conversation as many other chosen Democrats, former house speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Asked Trump’s move by comparing it with his delay when calling the National Guard to step on the Capitol 6 January 2021.
The American lawyer Pirro says that the administration will ‘tolerate’ crime in the capital of the country
Despite democratic complaints, few must question the need for greater public safety in the inner cities of our nation. But among our federal system, crime remains the competence of the States. “The regulation and punishment of intrastat violence … has always been the province of the states,” noted the Supreme Court United States v. Morrison (2000). As the great supreme judge John Marshall stated a century ago, The congress “has no general right to punish murder committed in one of the states”, and it is “clear [that] The congress cannot generally punish crimes. “
Criminal justice is in the core of the police force of the States – their general right to regulate people and activities within their borders – apart from the specific, narrow areas (such as regulating the Interstate Commerce) delegated by the Constitution to the Federal Government.
All laws in the District of Columbia are federal laws. If the mayor and city officials allow increasing crime, mainly because of mild laws and policy towards perpetrators, the president must intervene.
But that is not the case with Washington, DC, the Constitution, specifically creates the District of Columbia as a city outside the power of each state. As James Madison explained in Federalist No. 43The “seat of the government” should only fall under the power of the nation. Otherwise he warned: “The public authority could be insulted, and its procedure interrupted with impunity”, and the state where the capital lived “the National Councils could provide an allotment of awe or influence, just disconpinably for the government and dissatisfaction with the other [states]. ‘The framers wanted the national government to be in a city that would not be under a part -time control.
Trump activates National Guard troops to tackle ‘completely out of hand’ crime in Washington
But in 1973 the congress approved a home rule act (with the support of President Richard Nixon) who created a mayor, a city council and some limited rights to self -government.
This was a constitutional error.
Under the Constitution there is no real local government in DC; The entire city is only a subdivision of the national government. Trump’s takeover of the DC police and his efforts of troops and federal law enforcement does not respond to any rights of the local government, because, in contrast to the case with the deployment of troops in Los Angeles earlier this year, there is no need to show respect to the sovereignty of a state.
Wash Post editorial Zekt Possible success in the short term in Trump’s decision to send the National Guard to DC
The president does not need permission from the State to use American troops and federal law enforcement to protect federal property, facilities and staff.
Even if DC Home Rule was not contrary to the design of the Framer for the only federal city of the nation, Trump would still have the authority to take Monday’s action. The president has the obligation to guarantee public security in DC on the basis of Article II of the Constitution, the president has the duty to ‘ensure that the laws are executed faithfully’.
Under the Constitution there is no real local government in DC; The entire city is only a subdivision of the national government. (Istock)
All laws in the District of Columbia are federal laws. If the mayor and city officials allow increasing crime, mainly because of mild laws and policy towards perpetrators, the president must intervene. He has the constitutional responsibility to restore the methods for making law enforcement that those who work in Washington will protect and live.
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The Home Rule Act from 1973 itself, even if it is constitutional, recognizes the president’s authority. It enables him to take over the DC police for 30 days in the event of an emergency. The president could explain the large number of murders – the capital has always had one of the highest murder figures in the country and is currently on the fourth highest – an emergency. While murders fell in 2024, they came from a pandemic high; Murders in DC are still much higher than the low 2012. In any case, the determination of the Home Rule Act only applies to the DC police; The law cannot limit the authority of the president to use troops or the FBI to protect the federal city.
President Trump’s decision to restore the law and order in the district of Columbia is only the first step. He can take the necessary second step by working together with the congress to end the home rule and to restore control of the chosen government branches about the district.
Just as he claimed his control over the bureaucracy by shooting the heads of the desk, he was able to test the constitutional waters by removing the mayor and other DC officials. They too are only assistants from the president who help him fulfill his responsibility to implement federal law; If they don’t perform, he can and must replace them.
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Half a century ago, the congress and the president admitted to the misguided idea that residents of DC had a democratic right to manage their own affairs. But the framers did not want DC to fall under someone’s partisan control, especially those who would use their control over the district to influence the federal government themselves (remember the intimidation of Trump functionaries who remained unpunished during his first term).
Trump and the congress must admit that the home rule has failed and to turn DC into the large federal city that it should be.
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