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The Conversation
The Conversation
Andrea Katz, Associate Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis

Trump’s National Guard deployments reignite 200-year-old legal debate over state vs. federal power

Demonstrators in Portland, Ore., protest on Oct. 4, 2025, against President Donald Trump's plan to deploy the National Guard to the city. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

If you’re confused about what the law does and doesn’t allow the president to do with the National Guard, that’s understandable.

As National Guard troops landed in Portland, Oregon, in late September 2025, the state’s lawyers argued that the deployment was a “direct intrusion on its sovereign police power.”

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