On ‘Federalizing’ D.C.

Steve Vladeck: “The upshot of all of this is that the President does have two important authorities when it comes to ‘local’ law enforcement in the District of Columbia: He can use the (small) D.C. National Guard in circumstances in which he probably couldn’t use any other military personnel; and he can require the use of MPD ‘for federal purposes’ for up to 30 days. That’s not nothing, but it also isn’t anything close to some kind of federal takeover of the nation’s capital.”