On August 11, 2025, President Trump released a memorandum titled “Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia,” mobilizing the District of Columbia National Guard to “address the epidemic of crime in our Nation’s capital.” The move came as violent crime was at a 30-year low in Washington; crime was not out of control, and the city was not experiencing rising violence. Despite these facts, on August 16, 2025, South Carolina Governor McMaster announced that he had authorized the deployment of hundreds of South Carolina National Guardsmen to “support Federal law enforcement” in Washington. On November 26, the governor announced a second deployment of hundreds more, separating National Guard members from their families during the holidays for a deployment estimated to take 90 days.
On January 23, 2026, Democracy Forward and co-counsel ACLU filed a complaint on behalf of Navy veteran James Weninger and the South Carolina Public Interest Foundation in the South Carolina Supreme Court to stop South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and Robin B. Stilwell, the Adjutant General of the South Carolina National Guard, from deploying National Guard troops from South Carolina to police Washington, D.C.
In the complaint we argue that Governor McMaster’s deployment violates South Carolina law, which only allows the Guard to be called up under conditions set by the South Carolina General Assembly: “in the event of (a) war, insurrection, rebellion, invasion, tumult, riot or a mob, (b) a body of men acting together by force with intent to commit a felony, to offer violence to persons or property or by force and violence to break and resist the laws of this State or of the United States, (c) in case of the imminent danger of the occurrence of any such events, or (d) in the event of public disaster,” None of these conditions exist.
The plaintiffs ask the Supreme Court to deem the deployments of the South Carolina National Guard unlawful and to prevent the governor from further abusing his power by misusing South Carolina Guardsmen for political purposes. Alongside their complaint, the plaintiffs also petitioned the South Carolina Supreme Court to accept the case directly into the Court’s original jurisdiction, given the severity and importance of the issue.
On February 9, 2026, the South Carolina Supreme Court granted our petition for original jurisdiction.
Timeline
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The complaint was filed
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The South Carolina Supreme Court granted our petition for original jurisdiction
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Plaintiffs filed their opening brief
