Courts. (Credit: LevittownNow.com)
Gov. Shapiro described Trump’s decision to deploy the guard as a “dangerous overreach of power.”
This story has been updated at 2:38 p.m. with comments by Gov. Shapiro in Philadelphia on Oct. 9, 2025.
Pennsylvania has joined several states taking legal action against President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in U.S. cities, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced on Wednesday night.
“Deploying the National Guard to patrol American cities over the wishes of their governors is incredibly dangerous and an unprecedented infringement on states’ rights,” Shapiro wrote on social media. “Pennsylvania just took legal action to support our fellow states and put an end to the dangerous overreach of power we are seeing with Donald Trump’s Guard deployments.”
Over the summer, Trump ordered National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles in response to immigration protests. That action was ruled by a federal judge in California in September to be a violation of federal law against military members conducting domestic law enforcement.
Since then, Trump has also sent National Guard troops to Chicago, Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon, in what he says is an effort to combat crime. However, elected officials in Illinois and Oregon have argued against this move and have filed legal challenges over it. The Republican governor of Tennessee has welcomed the deployment.
Shapiro joins a coalition of 24 attorneys general and governors in an amicus brief supporting Oregon’s court challenge to Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in their state.
“President Trump’s deployment of Oregon’s National Guard, and attempted deployment of out-of-state Guard forces in Oregon, without the consent of Oregon’s Governor and in violation of the statute on which the President relies, is unlawful, unconstitutional, and undemocratic,” the officials wrote in the amicus brief. “It is inconsistent with one of our Nation’s founding principles that freedom depends on the subordination of the military to civilian authority.”
“It violates core constitutional principles of federalism, and it infringes on the sovereignty and police powers reserved to the States,” they add. “By calling forth troops when there is no invasion to repel, no rebellion to suppress, and when state and local law enforcement are fully able to execute the law, the President flouts the vision of our Founders, undermines the rule of law, and sets a chilling precedent that puts the constitutional rights of all Americans at risk.”
Shapiro has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s threats to send the National Guard to these cities for months, saying that his administration is prepared to act if Trump decides to deploy troops in the Keystone State.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Shapiro said his office could take “many additional actions” over this matter in the future.
“This is just one piece,” Shapiro said in response to a question from the Capital-Star.
The brief includes Shapiro’s name, but not state Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican.
Shapiro told the Capital-Star that he has a “very constructive” working relationship with Sunday.
“I have authority as governor to file an amicus brief like that, to file lawsuits,” Shapiro said. “As does he under the Commonwealth Attorneys Act.”
Sunday’s office declined to comment on the legal action taken by Shapiro.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner held a series of town halls last month to provide advice for what citizens should do if the National Guard was deployed to Pennsylvania’s biggest city, while also sharply criticizing the president’s approach.
Shapiro, noting his current role as commander in chief of the Pennsylvania National Guard and former state Attorney General, referenced his administration funding 1,500 more police officers as a reason that gun deaths have decreased in the state since he was sworn in to office.
“If Donald Trump is actually serious about crime, he should support states and local governments who know their communities best,” Shapiro wrote.
