The city’s attorney general, Brian Schwalb, argued in the federal lawsuit that the deployment is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

A federal judge in California recently ruled that Trump’s deployment of national guard troops to Los Angeles after days of protests over immigration raids in June was illegal. The Republican administration is appealing that decision and Trump has said he is ready to order federal intervention in Chicago and Baltimore, despite staunch opposition in those Democratic-led cities.

That ruling, however, does not directly apply to Washington, where the president has more control over the guard than in states.

About 2,300 troops from seven states have been deployed in the streets of the US capital since 11 August in a move that Schwalb says exceeds the president’s powers and violates the city’s autonomy, as enshrined in the Home Rule Act.