A court hearing culminates Monday over whether Gov. Patrick Morrisey is operating within his authority to deploy the West Virginia National Guard to patrol Washington, D.C.

Kanawha Circuit Judge Richard Lindsay heard about two hours of testimony Nov. 3, but delayed making a final ruling until another hearing that he set for 2 p.m. this Monday. The judge already heard about an hour of testimony Oct. 24.

On August 11, President Donald Trump declared a “crime emergency” for the District of Columbia, and five days later Gov. Patrick Morrisey deployed members of the West Virginia National Guard for support.

The governor’s original announcement noted that the mission would be funded at the federal level. That’s a Title 32 order, typically for natural disasters, where the National Guard remains under the control of the state’s governor but receives pay and benefits from the federal government for federal missions.

The 300 to 400 members of the West Virginia National Guard who have been deployed to Washington, D.C., have been operating under Joint Task Force-DC, which says the mission will continue “until law and order is restored.”

The West Virginia National Guard deployment remains active and could be in effect through early next year. 

The court case in Kanawha County has challenged the governor’s power to deploy the West Virginia National Guard to the streets of America’s capital.

Similar questions have arisen recently in other courts. A circuit judge in Tennessee is considering the legal basis of Gov. Bill Lee deployment of the Tennessee National Guard as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force.

And a federal judge has been considering legal questions about the extent to which President Donald Trump can use the National Guard to execute his agenda in the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb said late last month that she would take time to consider the arguments before making a ruling.

In West Virginia law, one key provision outlines the authority of the governor to order the organized militia to active state service, including the ability to order the militia to serve outside the state for training, parades or other duties.

Another describes the governor’s powers to call out the West Virginia National Guard “into the active service of the state” in events like war, insurrection, riot, invasion or public disaster.

ACLU-West Virginia filed the lawsuit on behalf of West Virginia Citizen Action Group. Lawyers for the state Attorney General are defending the governor’s decision to deploy the Guard.

“The deployment of the West Virginia National Guard to Washington, D.C., is not a mere technical violation of arcane statutory provisions,” ACLU legal director Aubrey Sparks wrote in the latest filing. 

“The facially unlawful use of military power outside of our state borders, involving the compelled participation of citizen soldiers, is a direct and flagrant attack on the democratic systems that West Virginia citizens, courts, and elected officials have zealously protected for 162 years.”

Lawyers for the state, represented by the Attorney General’s Office, countered that layers of federal law, including the Constitution, give the president the power to request the National Guard and the governor the authority to grant it.

Those lawyers contend that the National Guard is on a support mission, rather than engaging in law enforcement duties.

“In fact, neither the D.C. National Guard nor out-of-District National Guard members are making arrests or engaging in direct law enforcement activity,” wrote Christopher Etheredge, chief deputy attorney general.

“Instead, the D.C. National Guard, augmented by the WV National Guard, are conducting deterrence operations with a focus on presence and visibility.”

The government shutdown is now the longest in history. Panelists joined Washington Week With The Atlantic to discuss how voters and lawmakers are responding, and more.

Three weeks before Thanksgiving, “the administration has chosen to not find money to fund the food-assistance program for some 42 million Americans,” Jeff Zeleny, the chief national-affairs correspondent at CNN, said last night. “But they have found money for military payments and ICE officers and others. That choice, he added, “is beginning to catch up with the administration and Republicans.”

Meanwhile, “Democrats seem to be much more dug in than they were before Tuesday,” Atlantic staff writer Mark Leibovich noted. “I think they seem emboldened by Tuesday’s elections.”

Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more: Leigh Ann Caldwell, the chief Washington correspondent at Puck; David Ignatius, a foreign-affairs columnist at The Washington Post; Mark Leibovich, a staff writer at The Atlantic; and Jeff Zeleny, the chief national-affairs correspondent at CNN.

Watch the full episode here.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is scrutinizing a trip that Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser took to Qatar, but the mayor is not a target of the investigation, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday.

The probe into a trip Bowser took with staff in 2023 is focused on a lobbyist tied to the Democratic mayor, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

The New York Times reported Thursday that federal prosecutors in Washington had opened a corruption investigation into Bowser and were looking into potential violations of bribery or campaign finance laws related to the trip.

But Washington’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, said in a statement Friday that the mayor is “not under investigation, nor is she the target of any investigation.” A spokesperson for Pirro declined to further comment.

Asked about the investigation at a press conference Friday, Bowser said she had not been contacted by any federal officials and had not received any subpoenas, nor a target letter.

“I have checked our lawyers, and we have a regular kind of chain of who talks to who and we have not been contacted, not related to me or to anybody else as I’m aware,” Bowser said.

The trip in question included a stop in Doha, where the mayor met with international leaders on the issues of infrastructure, sports and education. She also promoted Washington as a destination for investment and tourism. Qatar donated $60,000 to help cover the cost of the trip for the mayor and members of her party.

Bowser told reporters Friday that it was “a business trip, a publicly noticed trip to promote Washington, D.C., in Qatar.”

“That’s what we did and we don’t have any bones about saying it,” she said. The mayor credited the trip with helping the city to keep two of its professional sports teams in the downtown area.

The scrutiny of the trip comes a time when the mayor is deciding whether to seek a fourth term.

It also comes at a critical moment when the city is responding to a government shutdown that has impacted businesses and a federal workforce as well as a continuing deployment of National Guard troops on the street through at least February 2026.