You're listening to Civics 101. I'm Nick Capidiche.

On August 11, 2025, President Donald Trump took control of the metropolitan police in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.

He also deployed federalized National Guard troops and FBI agents to patrol

the streets alongside police officers in the name of cracking down on crime in the city.

Overnight, confrontations in Washington, D.C.

Are you proud of what you're doing?

As protesters pushed back against President Trump's move to expand the National Guard

and Federal officer presence in the nation's capital.

Both statistics and statements from D.C. leadership tell us that crime is at a 30-year

low in the Capitol. And still, the president declared a crime emergency in the

city using a federal law called the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president

to seize control of the police under emergency circumstances for up to 30 days. This happened shortly

after the 19-year-old Edward Corristine, former

staffer of Doge, who's known by nickname, I will not say on a podcast that lots of high schoolers

listened to, was carjacked earlier this month, and Trump posted his photo to truth social,

promising to, quote, federalize this city. So, since we at Civics 101 do shows on things like the Declaration of Independence or how a bill becomes a law,

but we also do shows on things happening right now in our democracy, we wanted to jump into this quickly.

We wanted to know how this action is legal, what mechanisms

keep this situation in check, and whether this can happen where you live. To get to it fast,

Hannah McCarthy reached out to one of our most beloved, most trusted, and certainly fastest responding

guests, Dan Casino of Fairley Dickinson University.

They talked on Thursday, August 14th. Since then, the Washington, D.C. Attorney General has

...