Thread by @kyledcheney

AND WE'RE UNDERWAY: Judge Reyes has taken the bench to consider DC's emergency bid to block Trump's takeover of the city's police department.

REYES notes the attack on DOGE employee Ed Coristine and the prior claim by Trump + allies that crime in DC has been significantly down this year before deciding there was a national emergency.

But she says she will assume, for today, that the emergency claim is legit.

Arguing for DOJ: Yaakov Roth, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Civil Division.

REYES is skeptical that the Home Rule Act gives Trump power to commandeer the MPD. He can ask for services, she says, but the law doesn't seem to allow a full takeover.

Reyes notes, and all parties agree, she is the first judge to ever weigh in on the president's authority — through the Home Rule Act — to direct the MPD.

REYES not leaving a lot of mystery here: "The statute would have no meaning at all if the president could just say we’re taking over your police department."

REYES continuing to be skeptical that the Home Rule Act's provision allowing the president to use DC police for federal services permits a wholesale takeover. Asking for discrete services is different than saying police can't do anything without president's permission.

DOJ's Yaakov Roth says he thinks the language of the Home Rule Act is "broad" and may allow for president to take over entire police department without any judicial review.

Reyes has some issues with that.

REYES: "I still do not understand on what basis the president, through the attorney general, through Mr. Cole, can say 'You police department can’t do anything unless I say you can.' That cannot be the reading of the statute."

REYES now trying to encourage a short-term agreement between DC and the Trump administration to can stave off immediate crisis and revisit more fully next week. If she can’t, though, she’s likely to issue a restraining order.