WASHINGTON – Former President Barack Obama surprised a group of veterans who flew into D.C. over the weekend ahead of Veterans Day.

Obama surprises veterans

What we know:

A group of veterans of the Vietnam and Korean wars flew into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Saturday, as part of an honor flight from Wisconsin. The veterans were visiting their memorials ahead of Veterans Day on Tuesday.

“When you come to greet our Honor Flight Veterans at DCA, you never know who might be there. On Saturday, our Veterans from Badger Honor Flight were surprised when Barack Obama showed up to greet them when they arrived at DCA,” said a post on the Honor Flight Facebook page on Saturday. “He boarded the plane after it landed and addressed the group, then shook every hand and presented each with a presidential challenge coin!”

Obama shared video of the moment on his own Facebook page on Tuesday, showing him greeting the veterans as they got off the plane, and the large crowd of people greeting them as they walked into the terminal.

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What they’re saying:

“Ahead of Veterans Day, I was honored to welcome a flight of veterans and their families as they arrived in DC,” the former president wrote. “To all those who bravely served our country, thank you to you and your family for your extraordinary service. The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day.”

What is an Honor Flight?

Dig deeper:

Honor Flight DCA is a volunteer organization that flies veterans to Washington from over 100 hubs across the U.S. The organization brings the veterans to D.C. to visit the memorials for the wars they fought in, free of charge.

The group has flown approximately 300,000 veterans to D.C. over the last 20 years, according to their website.

What’s next:

The Honor Flight organization has one more flight scheduled in 2025, with a group from Austin arriving at DCA on Dec. 6.

A judge on Monday allowed the continued deployment of more than 300 West Virginia National Guard members to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., as part of President Donald Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Richard D. Lindsay made the ruling after hearing arguments in a lawsuit by a civic organization that argued Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey exceeded his authority when he authorized the Guard’s deployment in August.

West Virginia is among several states that sent National Guard members to the nation’s capital. While the state National Guard has said its deployment could last until the end of November, it is consulting with the governor’s office and others on the possibility of extending the stay.

READ MORE: While wary of Trump’s motives, some D.C. residents uneasily back parts of the National Guard deployment

Formal orders were issued last week extending the deployment of the District of Columbia’s National Guard in the city through the end of February.

“We are pleased with the judge’s decision,” Jace Goins, the state’s chief deputy attorney general, said outside the court in Charleston. “The National Guard are going nowhere. They’re staying in D.C. They’re not going to be redeployed to West Virginia.

“The judge made the determination that the governor made a lawful decision deploying the National Guard to D.C. by a lawful request of the president.”

The West Virginia Citizen Action Group, which filed the lawsuit, argued that under state law the governor could deploy the National Guard out of state only for certain purposes, such as responding to a natural disaster or another state’s emergency request.

The civic group claimed that it was harmed by the deployment by being forced to refocus its resources away from government accountability and transparency. The state attorney general’s office sought to reject the case, saying the group has not been harmed and lacked standing to challenge Morrisey’s decision.

“It was a simple issue of a broad, lawful request by the president and a lawful deployment by the governor. That’s all,” Goins said.

Aubrey Sparks, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s West Virginia chapter, said she didn’t believe it was the correct decision.

“I think that West Virginia law is clear,” Sparks said. “I think what the state was permitted to do here is to skirt past West Virginia law simply because Trump asked them to. And that’s not how the law works. We remain deeply concerned about it.”

Trump issued an executive order in August declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital, although the Department of Justice itself says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.

Within a month, more than 2,300 Guard troops from eight states and the District of Columbia were patrolling under the Army secretary’s command. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist them.

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.”