What A Day Fed Versus Blue
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Oct 7, 2025 Elizabeth Goitein, a senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice, explores the controversial deployment of the National Guard to cities protesting against federal policies. She discusses the legal implications of these actions, the differences between Guard and police roles, and historical precedents for federalizing the Guard. Goitein warns about the erosion of rights under militarized policing and shares advice for residents in affected areas to document and protest peacefully. She also anticipates legal challenges could escalate to the Supreme Court.
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Unprecedented Use Of The Guard
- Federalizing the National Guard for routine crime control is unprecedented in modern presidencies and departs from long-standing norms.
- This pattern risks normalizing military deployment against U.S. citizens and weakening democratic safeguards.
Posse Comitatus Restricts Federal Guard
- When federalized, the Guard falls under the Posse Comitatus Act which broadly bars federal forces from law enforcement roles.
- Courts have interpreted law enforcement to include crowd and traffic control, limiting Guard activities when federalized.
Guard Isn't Trained For Policing
- National Guard units lack municipal policing training and are ill-suited for routine law enforcement tasks.
- Using them for policing increases cost and decreases effectiveness compared with trained civilian police.