A federal judge ordered President Trump to cease the deployment of the California National Guard in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer found that the Trump administration’s argument that protests against federal immigration enforcement efforts constituted a “rebellion or danger of a rebellion.”
“The Founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances,” Breyer wrote in his opinion. “Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one. Six months after they first federalized the California National Guard, Defendants still retain control of approximately 300 Guardsmen, despite no evidence that execution of federal law is impeded in any way—let alone significantly.”
“What’s more, Defendants have sent California Guardsmen into other states, effectively creating a national police force made up of state troops,” the judge noted. “In response to Plaintiffs’ motion to enjoin this conduct, Defendants take the position that, after a valid initial federalization, all subsequent re-federalizations are completely, and forever, unreviewable by the courts. Defendants’ position is contrary to law.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta claimed the Trump administration has “held California National Guard troops hostage as part of its political games. But the President is not king. And he cannot federalize the National Guard whenever, wherever, and for however long he wants, without justification. This is a good day for our democracy and the strength of the rule of law.”
Breyer previously ruled in September that the National Guard’s actions in Los Angeles violated an 1878 law prohibiting federal troops from engaging in civilian law enforcement.
“The evidence at trial established that Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles,” U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote. “In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act.”
The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of “any part of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, or the Space Force as a posse comitatus” to enforce civilian laws.
