Who has control on calling up the Washington DC National Guard
Executive summary
The District of Columbia National Guard (DCNG) is legally distinct from state National Guards: nominal command rests with the president of the United States, but operational control has long been exercised through the Defense Department and delegated to the secretary of the Army (and sometimes the Army secretary’s designees), creating a hybrid chain of authority that has produced confusion and litigation about who can “call up” troops in the capital [1] [2] [3]. Advocates argue the mayor should gain control; federal officials and court rulings have pushed back, leaving a contested legal landscape about who may authorize deployments, especially of out‑of‑state Guard units [4] [5] [6].
1. Legal baseline: the president is the DC Guard’s commander‑in‑chief
Unlike state guards that report to governors, the statutory and historical framework places the D.C. National Guard under the president’s command, a distinction rooted in federal law and long‑standing practice that gives the president direct legal authority over DCNG mobilization that governors do not possess for their states’ forces [1] [4] [6].
2. Operational control: delegation through the Pentagon to the secretary of the Army
In practice the president’s command has been delegated inside the executive branch: a 1969 memorandum and subsequent Pentagon practice give the secretary of defense—and through him the secretary of the Army—operational oversight of the DCNG, and the Defense Department has at times further delegated approval authority for urgent deployments to the Army secretary or other Pentagon officials to speed responses [7] [3] [2].
3. The commanding general’s authority and gaps in the statute
Statutes and implementing opinions assign the DCNG’s commanding general, who is appointed by the president, the authority to “order out” the force for certain duties; those provisions are broad and vague, have been interpreted to allow support to civil authorities, and have been a key reason executives have asserted the ability to dispatch the D.C. Guard for local missions [7] [8]. Legal scholars and observers note the statutory language is outdated and spans everything from drills to support for civil law enforcement, producing operational ambiguity [7].
4. The mayor’s limited formal powers and legal challenges
The Home Rule Act did not confer on the elected mayor the same command authority governors exercise over state guards, and courts have recently found that the mayor does not possess greater statutory control than earlier appointed commissioners—prompting the D.C. attorney general to sue when the federal government deployed Guard units without local consent [5] [9]. The lawsuit and its factual recounting center on whether the president (and the Pentagon) exceeded authority in bringing in out‑of‑state Guard forces and placing them under federal command [5] [9].
5. Practical friction: approvals, mission changes, and Posse Comitatus constraints
Operational friction has emerged when missions expand—Guard troops in the District are subject to federal law (including the Posse Comitatus Act when federalized), and changing a mission (for example from traffic control to armed law enforcement) has required new approvals through the Pentagon chain, return to armories for new gear and legal orders, and sometimes caused delays or disputes about authority [2] [3] [6].
6. Political and reform debates: who should control the DCNG?
Civil‑rights and local‑control advocates, prominently the Brennan Center, argue Congress should transfer command of the DCNG to the mayor to align the District with state practice and prevent presidential use of the Guard for domestic policing without local consent; defenders of the federal arrangement cite national‑security and constitutional rationales for presidential control of the capital’s force, leaving an unresolved policy fight that has been reflected in legislative proposals and litigation [4] [10] [11].
Conclusion: who really “calls up” the DC Guard today?
Formally, the president holds command authority over the DC National Guard; operationally that authority is exercised through the Department of Defense and delegated to the secretary of the Army and the DCNG commanding general, and the mayor lacks the same call‑up power governors have—though that allocation has produced challenges and active court and legislative contests over whether and when the president (or Pentagon officials) may deploy DC and out‑of‑state Guard units without local consent [1] [3] [5] [9].