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The lawsuit filed by Washington's Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Friday follows an escalation between city officials and the Justice Department over President Donald Trump's moves to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to the nation's capital.
The complaint, which was filed in Washington federal court, alleged that Trump exceeded the authority granted by Congress in taking those steps. City officials also asked a judge Friday to block the federal government from assuming control of the metropolitan police force or issuing any further orders.
'The administration's unlawful actions are an affront to the dignity and autonomy of the 700,000 Americans who call DC home,' said Schwalb in a statement issued by the Washington Attorney General's Office. 'We are fighting to stop it.'
The White House and the Justice Department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump cited a 'crime emergency' in exercising rarely-used presidential powers to ramp up the federal presence in Washington's local affairs, even though recent data — including from the Justice Department — show sharply declining crime rates.
Tensions between city officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi flared Thursday when DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and Schwalb rejected an order from Bondi that would strip the Metropolitan Police Department's chief of her authority and place the agency under federal control.
Bondi's directive named the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Terrence Cole, as 'emergency police commissioner' giving him the full powers of the city's police chief. The missive orders Washington's police leaders to seek Cole's approval before issuing directives, rescinds several department orders and instructs officers to fully enforce laws against blocking streets and occupying public spaces.
In her order, Bondi criticized the city's sanctuary policies for shielding criminals who are in the US illegally 'from the consequences of federal law.' The DC attorney general's lawsuit warned that Bondi's order would upend the command structure of the local police and 'sow chaos among the more than 3,100 officers serving the District, endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers alike.'
Washington has a unique relationship with the federal government. Congress passed a law in 1973, known as the Home Rule Act, that empowers the city to elect its own leaders and run its own day-to-day affairs. But the district is still subject to congressional oversight, its local judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the US Senate, and the US attorney's office handles a large proportion of local prosecutions.
The home rule law includes a section that allows the president to exercise control over the city's police force if 'special conditions of an emergency nature exist.' The takeover can last as many as 30 days, at which point it can only continue if Congress votes to approve the extension.
The president also controls the city's National Guard reserve force, another dynamic that sets it apart from states.
Washington's lawsuit alleged that Trump doesn't have the authority to 'seize command and control over the police force himself,' but can only require the mayor to offer assistance from the police in 'certain emergency circumstances.' The city also argued that Trump's use of rising crime as a reason to assert his authority was so sweeping that it 'would undermine Congress's decision to transfer control for day-to-day governance of the city to locally elected and accountable leaders.'
Bowser supports statehood for the district and has pushed back on Republican calls to repeal the home rule law and federalize the city. Still, she's sought to avoid an aggressively adversarial relationship with the White House during Trump's second term.
Bowser said her administration has complied with the DC Home Rule Act's requirement to provide police services for federal purposes during a declared emergency but added, 'there is no statute that conveys the District's personnel authority to a federal official.'
Schwalb has taken a confrontational approach, releasing a statement calling Trump's actions 'unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.' He sent a letter to Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith dated Aug. 14 saying that in his opinion Bondi's order 'is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it.'
--With assistance from Kate Sullivan.
(Updates with details from the complaint.)
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