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president Donald Trump announced on Monday that his government would take over the District of Columbia police and will use 800 soldiers from the National Guard and new federal law enforcement authorities in the country’s capital.
“This is the day of liberation in DC and we will withdraw our capital,” said Trump at a press conference of the White House, which was flanked by Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other high -ranking administrative officers. “It will be a model. And then we will also look at other cities. But other cities are examining what we are doing,” said Trump. “We will have a safe, beautiful capital and it will happen very quickly.”
Democratic leaders reacted with their usual eloquence. “Violent crime in Washington, DC, is a low of thirty years. Donald Trump has no basis to adopt the local police authority. And no credibility towards law and order. Lost”, Hakeem Jeffries, Dn.Y., House Minister Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., published on X.
Repeat the same point of conversation as many other elected Democrats, former house spokesman Nancy PelosiD-Calif., Asked Trump’s move by comparing him with his delay to call up the national guard to step onto the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
Despite democratic complaints, only a few should question the need for greater public security in the inner cities of our nation. But according to our federal system, the crime remains the area of responsibility of the states. “The regulation and punishment of intra -violent violence … has always been the province of the states”, which Supreme Court observed in United States against Morrison (2000). As the great top judge John Marshall explained a century ago, Congress “has no general right to punish the murder in one of the states”, and it is “clear” [that] The congress cannot generally punish criminals. “
The criminal justice is at the core of the states of the states of the police – their general right to regulate people and activities within their borders – apart from the specific, narrow areas (e.g.
All laws in the Columbia district are federal laws. If the mayor and the city officials allow increasing crime, in particular because of withdrawal laws and guidelines towards criminals, the president should intervene.
But that is not the case with Washington, DC creates the constitution in particular Columbia district as a city beyond the power of every state. As James Madison explained Federist No. 43The “seat of the government” only has to fall under the power of the nation. Otherwise, he warned that “the public authority could be insulted and interrupted its procedure with impunity”, and the state in which capital lives “could bring the national councils an excitement of awe or influence [states]. “The Framer wanted the national government to be in a city that does not maintain a partisan control.
But in 1973 the Congress said goodbye to a Home Rule Act (with President Richard Nixons Support) that created a mayor, a city council and some limited rights to self -government.
This was a constitutional error.
According to the constitution, there is no real local government in DC; The whole city is only a subdivision of the national government. Trump’s takeover of the DC police and his use of troops and law enforcement agencies of the federal government do not penetrate the rights of the local government, since in contrast to the case with the use of troops in Los Angeles at the beginning of this year, no need to pay the sovereignty of a state respect.
The President does not need a permission of the state to remove the federal government, institutions and employees of the federal government.
Even if DC Home Rule did not have gone against the design of the framer for the country’s only federal city, Trump still had the authority to take the measures on Monday. The President is obliged to public security in DC in accordance with Article II of ConstitutionThe president has the obligation to “make sure that the laws are faithfully carried out”.
According to the constitution, there is no real local government in DC; The whole city is only a subdivision of the national government. (IStock)
All laws in the Columbia district are federal laws. If the mayor and the city officials allow increasing crime, in particular because of withdrawal laws and guidelines towards criminals, the president should intervene. He has the constitutional responsibility to restore statutory law enforcement methods that protect those who work and live in Washington.
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The Home Rule Act from 1973 itself, even if it is constitutional law, recognizes the authority of the President. It enables him to take over the DC police for 30 days in an emergency. The president could explain the high number of murders – the capital always had one of the highest murder rates in the country and is currently at the fourth highest – an emergency. During the murders in 2024, they came down from a pandemic; The murders in DC are even higher than the low of 2012. In any case, the determination of the Home Rule Act only applies to the DC police. The law is limited and could not restrict the authority of the president, to use troops or the FBI To protect the federal city.
President Trump’s decision to restore law and order Only the first step is in the Columbia district. He can take the necessary second step by working with the congress to end the home rule and to restore the control of the chosen government branches through the district.
Just as he claimed his control over the bureaucracy by dismissing authorities, he was able to test the constitutional waters by removing the mayor and other DC officials. They too are only assistants of the President who help him fulfill his responsibility for the execution of the Federal Law. If it does not occur, he can and should replace it.
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Half a century ago, the congress and the president gave the misguided idea that DC residents had a democratic right to manage their own affairs. But the Framer did not want DC to fall under the party political control of someone, especially those who would use their control over the district to influence the federal government itself (they remember the harassment of Trump officials who were impossible during their first term).
Trump and congress Should admit that the house rule has failed and DC should make the big federal city, it should be.
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