Blumenthal Joins 17 Senators in Amicus Brief Fighting Trump Abuse of Military Deployments

[Hartford, CT] - Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and 14 other Senators in filing an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Newsom v. Trump, the lawsuit brought against President Trump for his misuse of the U.S. military earlier this year.

The lawsuit was filed by the State of California and Gavin Newsom in his capacity as Governor, after Trump deployed thousands of members of the California National Guard and U.S. Marine Corps to Los Angeles without legal justification or approval from state or local officials.

The amicus brief warns of the potential for continued abuse of the military should the Court rule for the administration and argues against permitting the President to exceed his constitutionally delegated powers.

"Our concern that President Trump will continue to act in bad faith and abuse his power is borne out by his recent deployment of state militias to Washington, D.C. and his stated intent to deploy state militias in other blue' cities," the Senators wrote.

The brief was signed by Blumenthal, Schiff, Padilla, Durbin, Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai'i), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The amicus brief can be found here.

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