Courts in Tennessee and West Virginia heard arguments Monday challenging the deployment of their states’ National Guard troops to patrol the streets of Memphis and in the District, respectively, as part of President Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities.
Judges in West Virginia and Tennessee did not immediately issue decisions, their rulings likely won’t be the final word on the matter: Mr. Trump’s enforcement efforts have unleashed a whirlwind of lawsuits and overlapping court rulings.
West Virginia is among several states that sent National Guard members to the nation’s capital to support Mr. Trump’s crime-fighting efforts. Last month, a West Virginia judge asked attorneys for the state to address whether Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s deployment of up to 300 Guard members in August was legal.
A civic organization called the West Virginia Citizen Action Group says in a lawsuit that the Republican governor exceeded his authority. Under state law, the group argues, the governor may deploy the National Guard out of state only for certain purposes, such as responding to a natural disaster or another state’s emergency request.
Mr. Morrisey’s office has argued the deployment was authorized under federal law.
After one witness for the plaintiff group testified Monday, the judge said the hearing would continue one week later.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Richard Lindsay in Charleston heard initial arguments in the case on Oct. 24. The civic group argued it was harmed by the deployment by being forced to refocus its resources away from government accountability and transparency.
The state attorney general’s office sought to reject the case, saying the group has not been harmed and lacked standing to challenge Morrisey’s decision. Lindsay rescheduled the hearing and ordered the state to focus on whether what Mr. Morrisey did was lawful.
The West Virginia National Guard has said its deployment could last until the end of November.
While Mr. Trump issued an executive order in August declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital, the U.S. Justice Department says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.
Within a month, more than 2,300 Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling under the Army secretary’s command. Mr. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist them.
Separately, a federal judge heard arguments Oct. 24 on District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s request for an order that would remove National Guard members from Washington streets. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, has not yet issued a ruling.
The West Virginia and Tennessee hearings came after a federal judge on Sunday barred the Trump administration from deploying the Guard to Portland, Oregon, until at least Friday, saying she “found no credible evidence” that protests in the city grew out of control before the president federalized the troops earlier this fall.
In Tennessee, Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal in Nashville heard opposing takes about the governor’s authority to call the Guard.
The individual state and local Democratic officials contend in a lawsuit that Republican Gov. Bill Lee cannot deploy the Tennessee National Guard for civil unrest unless there is a rebellion or invasion, and even then, it would require action by state lawmakers. Another provision spells out a need for a request from a local government to use the Guard in a “breakdown of law and order,” they said.
The lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction to block the Guard’s current use in the Memphis mission.
In a legal filing last week, the state said the plaintiffs are misinterpreting how the Tennessee Constitution classifies the National Guard. Tennessee law gives the governor “the authority to dispatch the Guard when needed and to determine when that need exists,” the state added.
The state also argued that the plaintiff officials lacked legal standing to sue over the deployment and added that the issue is a political question, not one for the courts.
Josh Salzman, an attorney with Democracy Forward representing the plaintiffs, called the state’s arguments about the governor’s authority “really terrifying.”
After the hearing, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told reporters that “the argument is not that there’s no room for oversight,” saying that the Guard can’t do whatever it wants. “It’s that the determination of when the Guard should be brought out is statutorily left to the governor’s discretion.”
Since their arrival on Oct. 10, National Guard troops have been patrolling neighborhoods and commercial areas of Memphis, including near the iconic Pyramid in downtown, wearing fatigues and protective vests that say “military police.” Officials have said Guard members, who are armed, have no arrest power.
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