WASHINGTON

A US federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Washington, DC.

District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the administration has "exceeded the bounds of their authority” and "acted contrary to law" in deploying the troops "in the absence of a request from the city’s civil authorities."

Cobb noted that although President Donald Trump serves as commander in chief of the National Guard, his authority is restricted by federal statutes governing when and how Guard units can be federalized and used — especially in the capital, where Congress maintains ultimate control.

"The Court rejects Defendants’ fly-by assertion of constitutional power, finding that such a broad reading of the President’s Article II authority would erase Congress’s role in governing the District and its National Guard,” she wrote in the ruling.

Cobb delayed the impact of her decision until Dec. 11, giving the Trump administration an opportunity to file an appeal.

“The Court finds that the District’s exercise of sovereign powers within its jurisdiction is irreparably harmed by Defendants’ actions in deploying the Guards,” she wrote.

In August, Trump announced that he is placing local police in the nation's capital under federal control and said he is deploying the National Guard to address what he called a "public safety emergency."

Trump so far has sought to deploy National Guard and active-duty troops to five major Democratic-led cities — Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and Memphis — while also threatening potential military intervention in several others, including Baltimore, New York, New Orleans, Oakland, San Francisco and St. Louis.