The question is whether a Republican judiciary will read the entire law governing Trump’s power over DC, or just the part that Trump likes.
President Donald Trump released an executive order invoking a rarely used federal law that allows him to temporarily seize control over Washington, DC’s police force. Later the same day, DC’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser seemed to concede that there’s nothing she can do about it.
“What I would point you to is the Home Rule Charter that gives the president the ability to determine the conditions of an emergency,” Bowser said Monday afternoon. “We could contest that, but the authority is pretty broad.”SCOTUS, Explained
Get the latest developments on the US Supreme Court from senior correspondent Ian Millhiser.
Bowser is almost certainly correct that Trump can seize control of her city’s police force, at least for a little while.
The District of Columbia is not a state, and does not enjoy the same control over its internal affairs that, say, nearby Virginia or Maryland does. The Constitution gives Congress the power to “exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever” over the nation’s capital. If Congress wanted to, it could turn DC into a federal protectorate tomorrow.
In 1974, however, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which generally gives DC residents the power to elect the city’s leaders. But that law contains an exception that allows the president to briefly take command of DC’s police.
“Whenever the President of the United States determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist which require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for federal purposes,” the law provides, the president may require the city’s mayor to provide him “such services of the Metropolitan Police force as the President may deem necessary and appropriate.”
The same law, however, also provides that presidential control over DC police must terminate after 30 days, unless Congress takes some action to extend it. So, assuming that the courts actually apply this 30-day limit to Trump, Trump’s control over DC’s local police will only last a month at most.
Indeed, Trump’s own executive order seems to acknowledge that his powers are time-limited. The order requires Mayor Bowser to “provide the services of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes for the maximum period permitted under section 740 of the Home Rule Act.”
The Home Rule Act, moreover, is fairly adamant that this 30-day limit is real. It provides that, absent congressional action, “no such services made available pursuant to the direction of the President … shall extend for any period in excess of 30 days.” So, if Trump does try to extend the time limit without Congress’s consent, the courts should not permit him to do so.
