LA Daily News: Trump’s use of National Guard during LA immigration protests is illegal, a judge rules
By Olga R. Rodriguez
President Donald Trump’s administration violated federal law in the use of National Guard troops during Southern California immigration enforcement operations and accompanying protests, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration “willfully” violated federal law by sending National Guard troops to the Los Angeles area in early June after immigration raids prompted days of protests, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
In a scathing ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco noted Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have stated their intention to deploy National Guard troops to other cities across the country, including Oakland and San Francisco, and that raises concerns they are “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”
Breyer did not require the 300 remaining troops to be withdrawn but pointed out they received improper training and ordered Trump’s Republican administration to stop using them “to execute the laws.” He set the order to go into effect Sept. 12.
The order comes after California sued, saying the troops sent to Los Angeles over the summer were violating a law that prohibits military enforcement of domestic laws. Lawyers for Trump’s Republican administration have argued the Posse Comitatus Act doesn’t apply because the troops were protecting federal officers, not enforcing laws. They say the troops were mobilized under an authority that allows the president to deploy them.
The judge’s decision comes as Trump has discussed National Guard deployments in Democratic-led cities like Chicago, Baltimore and New York. He has already deployed the guard as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover in Washington, where he has direct legal control.
Trump federalized members of the California National Guard and sent them to the second-largest U.S. city over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and city leaders. Trump did so under a law that allows the president to call the guard into federal service when the country “is invaded,” when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government,” or when the president is otherwise unable “to execute the laws of the United States.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a prepared statement, “Today’s ruling affirms that President Trump is not King, and the power of the executive is not boundless. For more than two months, the President has engaged in political theater, using National Guard troops and Marines as pawns to further his anti-immigrant agenda. In doing so, he trampled on one of the very basic foundations of our democracy: That our military be apolitical and the activities of troops on U.S. soil be extremely limited to ensure civil liberties and protect against military overreach. I applaud the District Court for firmly rejecting the Trump Administration’s reckless interpretation of the Posse Comitatus Act and rebuking its unprecedented use of military troops for civilian law enforcement in California communities.”
And U.S. Senator Alex Padilla issued a statement, saying, “Today, a federal judge confirmed what we knew all along: Trump broke the law in his effort to turn service members into his own national police force. The decision to deploy the military in Los Angeles was never about public safety — it was political theater to distract from his disastrous tariffs and refusal to release the Epstein files.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass praised the judge’s ruling that the troop deployment was illegal. She said the White House tried to invade the nation’s second-largest city but “Los Angeles will not buckle and we will not break.”
Meanwhile, acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli wrote on X, “The military will remain in Los Angeles. This is a false narrative and a misleading injunction. The military has never engaged in direct law enforcement operations here in L.A. They protect our federal employees our properties so our federal agents can safely enforce federal laws.”
Trump has pushed the bounds of typical military activity on domestic soil, including through the creation of militarized zones along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Newsom posted on X, in an all-caps reflection of the president’s own social media style, “DONALD TRUMP LOSES AGAIN. The courts agree — his militarization of our streets and use of the military against US citizens is ILLEGAL.”
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a message to City News Service, “Once again, a rogue judge is trying to usurp the authority of the Commander-in-Chief to protect American cities from violence and destruction. President Trump saved Los Angeles, which was overrun by deranged leftist lunatics sowing mass chaos until he stepped in. While far-left courts try to stop President Trump from carrying out his mandate to Make America Safe Again, the President is committed to protecting law-abiding citizens, and this will not be the final say on the issue.”
Breyer’s ruling accused the Trump administration of “willfully” violating the law, saying it used troops for functions that were barred by their own training materials, refused to “meaningfully coordinate with state and local officials” and “‘coached’” federal law enforcement agencies on the language to use when requesting assistance.
“These actions demonstrate that Defendants knew that they were ordering troops to execute domestic law beyond their usual authority,” he wrote. “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.
Breyer also noted the Trump administration’s possible plans to call National Guard troops into other U.S. cities.
In Los Angeles, National Guard members joined an operation at MacArthur Park in downtown Los Angeles intended as a show of force against people in the U.S. illegally and those protesting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. They also accompanied federal immigration officers on raids at two state-licensed marijuana nurseries in Ventura County, Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman testified.
Sherman, who initially commanded the troops deployed to Los Angeles, testified during the second day of the trial that he raised concerns the deployment could violate the Posse Comitatus Act.
He said soldiers were trained on the law and given materials that included a list of activities prohibited by the act, including doing security patrols and conducting traffic control, crowd control and riot control.
Sherman said that while the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits troops from carrying out those actions, he was told by his superiors that there was a “constitutional exception” that permitted such activities when the troops are protecting federal property or personnel.
Read the full article here.