A California federal judge has once again ruled that President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in Los Angeles was illegal. The judge stated that the troops were performing law enforcement duties that are prohibited for the military. For those of us who know our history and see the patterns, no president can do this because of the Posse Comitatus Act.
The ruling was made by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer, who had previously ruled on the matter back in June, but that ruling was immediately overturned by an appeals court that allowed Trump to keep control of the troops. But this time around, Breyer’s 52-page ruling is a result of a trial he held last month to take a look at the actions of the unit, Task Force 51, that was stationed in Los Angeles.
The judge’s 52-page ruling, found by NPR, states, “The record is replete with evidence that Task Force 51 executed domestic law in these prohibited ways. Bystanders at multiple locations and even federal officials at trial were unable to distinguish Task Force 51 troops from federal law enforcement agents.”
Unsurprisingly, Trump wasn’t supposed to use the national guard against the people
While the judge delayed the ruling’s implementation until September 12, which gives the Trump administration time to appeal, the ruling makes it clear that the military cannot be used as a police force against U.S. citizens. Essentially, you can’t arm the national guard and use the military on your own citizens; that’s what dictators do, not democratically elected officials.
The ruling comes after a lawsuit was filed by the state of California, which argued that the deployment violated a long-standing ban on the U.S. military carrying out law enforcement duties on civilians, a law known as the Posse Comitatus Act. The Trump administration’s attorneys argued that the law didn’t apply because the National Guard was only there to protect federal agents, not to make arrests or enforce laws.
The administration also argued that the president had the authority to mobilize the troops under other laws that grant broad powers for national security. However, Judge Breyer wasn’t having any of it. He stated that the troops had set up traffic blockades to help federal agents they were mixed with, and he cited a few other examples, like when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered Guard troops to patrol MacArthur Park as a show of force.
These small but steady judicial victories, when added together, make it clear that the president’s powers are not as boundless as he seems to think they are. Moving forward, while the Trump administration has been given time to appeal, this ruling is a clear message that using the military for civilian law enforcement is illegal and a serious violation of federal law.
