The Steady State Files Amicus Curiae

Washington, D.C. — October 10, 2025 The Steady State, an organization of more than 330 former senior national security officials, today filed an Amicus Curiae brief in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia supporting the District’s opposition to the administration’s motion to dismiss in District of Columbia v. Donald J. Trump, Case No. 1:25-cv-3005 (JRR). The brief warns that President Trump’s ongoing deployment of military and National Guard forces in U.S. cities, including the District of Columbia, represents a grave constitutional danger and a historic break from the legal limits that have defined civilian control of the military since the nation’s founding.

“The Executive Branch’s recent actions and legal arguments demonstrate a view that the President is above the law, including with respect to domestic deployments of military personnel—a decision it claims is unreviewable and without restriction,” the brief concludes. “That is not so. The preservation of our Republic, and its representative democracy, demands vigilant resistance to the normalization of military forces in our civil society.”

Drawing on Justice Robert H. Jackson’s landmark concurrence in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), the brief emphasizes that “the purpose of the Constitution was not only to grant power, but to keep it from getting out of hand.” As the filing notes, “Justice Jackson’s warning that ‘comprehensive and undefined presidential powers’ carry ‘grave dangers for the country’ was informed by the hard proofs he had seen at Nuremberg—that such powers, unchecked, can destroy a constitutional democracy from within.”

Steven Cash, Executive Director of The Steady State, stated: “Justice Jackson carried the lessons of Nuremberg into Youngstown because he had seen firsthand what happens when leaders treat the military as their personal instrument. Steady State members have seen it happen in their posts around the world. We cannot pretend it can’t happen here—it starts with the same excuses, and it ends the same way.”

Gregory S. Smith, counsel for The Steady State, added: “Their message is that the President’s novel recent assertions of authority have been highly irregular and deeply troubling, and that this court accordingly must fulfill its solemn duty as a co-equal branch of government to ensure that this President’s actions respect and follow the boundaries of our laws and constitution.”

The brief is available at LINK

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 330 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.