A federal judge ruled Thursday that the White House and the Pentagon do not have the authority to deploy National Guard troops to the District of Columbia to deter crime, as Politico reported. 

“DOD defendants have exceeded the bounds of their authority under Title 49 of the D.C. Code, and thus acted contrary to law, in deploying the DCNG for non-military, crime-deterrence missions in the absence of a request from the city’s civil authorities,” the ruling says. “Second, these defendants lack statutory authority under 32 U.S.C. § 502 to support their request for assistance from out-of-state National Guards and their actions in calling those Guards to the District.” 

The judge said the deployments can continue until Dec. 11 to give the administration time to appeal the ruling. The White House planned to keep the roughly 2,400 Guard members deployed for the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Mission through February.  

Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Christian Brown