A federal judge in San Francisco is preparing to hear arguments in a lawsuit that will determine whether the Trump administration’s decision to send National Guard soldiers and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles broke federal law. This legal case was filed after the administration, with Donald Trump having been president for seven months at the time, took control of California National Guard members and sent them to the city in June following protests over immigration arrests.
The deployment happened even though California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and local city leaders strongly opposed it. California is asking the court to force the Trump administration to return control of the remaining troops to the state. The lawsuit also aims to stop the federal government from using military personnel in California to enforce federal or civilian laws.
California’s argument is based on the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, a law meant to stop the president from using the military as a police force within the country. The result of this case could set a standard for how the president is allowed to deploy the National Guard in California and other states in the future. The Trump administration has fought back against California’s lawsuit, claiming that the president has the power to use the National Guard to enforce U.S. laws when federal law enforcement is not enough.
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The administration’s lawyers have argued in court documents that the case should be thrown out and that a president’s decisions on these matters cannot be challenged in court. A Department of Homeland Security official in Los Angeles stated in court papers that the troops were necessary because local law enforcement was slow to respond to a crowd that gathered outside a federal building to protest the immigration arrests. The official said the troops played a key role in protecting federal property and workers from violent crowds.
Judge Charles Breyer previously gave California an early win by ruling that the administration had violated the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which defines the separation of powers between federal and state governments, and had gone beyond its legal authority. The administration quickly appealed this decision and managed to get a temporary pause that let them keep federal control of the California National Guard while the lawsuit continued.
In its defense, the Trump administration pointed to Section 12406 of Title 10, which allows a president to call the National Guard into federal service during a rebellion or threat of rebellion. However, Judge Breyer ruled that the protests in Los Angeles did not come close to being a rebellion. The initial deployment in June included around 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 Marines.
AP: A federal judge in San Francisco will consider evidence and hear arguments on whether Trump violated federal law by deploying the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles.
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Most of these forces have since left, but 250 National Guard members are still stationed at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. While deployed, the National Guard members joined federal immigration officers on raids in Los Angeles and at two marijuana farms in Ventura County. The Marines’ main job was to guard a federal building in downtown Los Angeles that contains a detention center, which was a major focus of the protests. The administration’s official stance has been that the troops were needed to protect federal property and employees in a city that has been a key location for the federal government’s strict immigration enforcement efforts.
Federal agents have been arresting immigrants without legal status at various public places, and some U.S. citizens have also been detained. The lawsuit is moving forward, with Judge Breyer ruling that the upcoming three-day bench trial will not be canceled, despite the administration’s attempts to stop it. The judge has also allowed California’s lawyers to take a sworn statement from the Department of Homeland Security official and to submit a written statement from a military official about the troops’ role.
