Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Wednesday filed an amicus brief asking a federal judge to dismiss Colorado’s lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to permanently locate U.S. Space Command headquarters at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.
The filing, submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, argues that Colorado’s lawsuit seeks to draw the judiciary into a political dispute over where military personnel should work and live—a decision Alabama says the Constitution entrusts to the executive branch.
“Colorado is asking a federal court to override the Commander in Chief on a national security decision because they don’t like the outcome. That’s not a legal argument, it’s sore loser politics dressed up in a lawsuit,” Marshall said in a statement announcing the filing.
Trump redesignated Redstone Arsenal as the permanent headquarters for U.S. Space Command on September 2, 2025, reversing former President Joe Biden’s 2023 decision to keep the command in Colorado Springs. Colorado later sued the federal government, seeking to block the move and keep Space Command’s headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base.
Alabama’s filing also claims the lawsuit raises a nonjusticiable political question because military basing decisions fall within the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief.
“Were it otherwise, the nation’s national security would get stuck in judicial review, ping-ponging between courts as litigants challenge the thought process behind each new Commander in Chief’s decision-making,” the filing states.
Marshall’s office also pointed to the extensive review process that led to Huntsville’s selection. In January 2021, following a nationwide evaluation, the Air Force identified Redstone Arsenal as the preferred location for U.S. Space Command based on mission requirements, infrastructure and projected cost savings.
Subsequent investigations by the Department of Defense Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office found the selection process reasonable and free of improper influence.
“While reports prepared by both offices noted that the Air Force’s modified basing procedures could have been improved, neither office concluded that any Air Force or DOD official, nor any other actor involved in the basing process, had engaged in any wrongdoing. Instead, both investigations found that the designation of Redstone Arsenal was reasonable and lawful,” the filing states.
The amicus brief argues that Colorado’s challenge would effectively require the court to substitute its judgment for that of military leaders and the president.
“Whether to locate Space Command in Colorado, Alabama, or the Arctic are political questions entrusted to Congress and the President, not to federal courts,” the filing states.
The filing marks another chapter in the yearslong battle over the command’s permanent home. Alabama Republicans have long argued that Huntsville initially outscored other locations on the merits and that Biden’s decision to keep Space Command in Colorado was politically motivated.
