Tzedek DC and allied DC civil rights and legal services organizations have filed a federal court amicus brief to support the District of Columbia’s lawsuit to stop the use of the National Guard for local law enforcement purposes.
The brief states: “The President’s use of the military to attempt to... ‘take [the District] back,’ ‘take it away from the Mayor,’ and ‘run it the way it’s supposed to be run’ defies any notion of democratic representation and flies in the face of the more than 200-year old fight by District residents to achieve Home Rule.”
The District’s right to autonomy and self-governance is intrinsically intertwined with racial justice and civil rights, and the grant of DC Home Rule in 1973 was a direct result of the efforts in the civil rights movement to ensure that DC residents, over two-thirds of whom at the time were Black, have the right to full democratic participation.
As an organization that serves a significant number of crime victims, Tzedek DC is especially concerned that those making choices about running the District’s local public safety functions are accountable to those who will feel the impact of their decisions most directly.
The brief argues that deployment of National Guard troops from states from all around the country for local District law enforcement purposes causes irreparable harm to residents. Public trust and safety are damaged by shifting law enforcement from local police to state militias, which creates a sense of distrust among victims of crime from seeking support from government agencies and removes critical democratic accountability over our client community’s welfare.
“Tzedek DC is grateful to the Washington Lawyers’ Committee and ACLU-DC, and we join our amicus coalition in standing with our client community,” said Founding President & Director-Counsel Ariel Levinson-Waldman. “We support DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb and the Office of the Attorney General’s efforts to challenge the legality of this damaging and unilateral federal imposition of state militias on our client community.”
Along with Tzedek DC, the amicus brief coalition includes the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and ACLU-DC, who filed the brief, as well as Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Bread for the City, Children’s Law Center, DC Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, Disability Rights DC at University Legal Services, Legal Aid DC, School Justice Project, and Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.
About Tzedek DC
Tzedek DC’s name is drawn from the ancient Jewish teaching “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,” or “Justice, justice you shall pursue.” Headquartered at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law and with offices also in Ward 8, Tzedek DC’s mission is to safeguard the legal rights and financial health of DC residents with lower incomes facing the often-devastating consequences of debt collection and credit-related obstacles. This mission is carried out as anti-racism work in response to the massive wealth gaps tracking race in DC and nationwide. Tzedek DC seeks to serve and empower our client base, which is comprised of 90% Black people, 60% women, and 25% disabled community members. Our strategic approach combines three synergistic activities: (i) free direct services—legal representation and advice and financial counseling; (ii) working in coalition to make systemic change; and (iii) providing bilingual community legal education on debt collection, identity theft, and credit management.