Trump administration use of National Guard in LA violated law, judge rules

The Trump administration illegally used National Guard troops it deployed to Los Angeles this summer amid protests over immigration raids, willfully violating a law that prohibits the military from carrying out domestic law enforcement, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco said federal officials violated the Posse Comitatus Act and “expressly instructed” troops they “could engage in certain law enforcement activities: setting up protective perimeters, traffic blockades, crowd control, and the like.”

“That instruction was incorrect,” he wrote.

Breyer’s ruling, in a case brought by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), came as President Donald Trump has argued National Guard deployments are needed to fight crime in cities including Chicago, Baltimore and New York. Using his presidential authority over the D.C. National Guard, Trump last month began deploying troops as well as federal agents alongside local police in the nation’s capital.

While taking sharp aim at the Trump administration for its actions in Los Angeles, Breyer also noted the “narrowly tailored” limits of his order. He said it did not require the administration to pull back the 300 National Guard troops who remain in the city. Nor, he said, did it apply to National Guard troops in other states.

The judge also stayed his ruling from taking effect until Sept. 12, giving the administration a 10-day window to file an expected appeal. The Justice Department declined to comment on Breyer’s ruling or any potential appeal.

Under Breyer’s order, troops would only be allowed to do things including “protect federal property in a manner consistent with the Posse Comitatus Act.” They would be blocked, however, from being deployed, trained or used “to execute the laws,” with prohibited actions including carrying out arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols and traffic control.

Speaking at the White House, Trump dismissed Breyer as “a radical left judge.” But he emphasized that the ruling did not order the remaining troops withdrawn from Los Angeles.

“They can continue to be in place,” Trump said. “That’s all we need.”

Earlier this summer, Trump sent about 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests that erupted following immigration raids in the nation’s second-largest city. While the administration portrayed it as a necessary response, local and state officials denounced the deployments, saying they could manage the demonstrations and that federal intervention was inflammatory.

California officials said military forces in this case were “pervasively intertwined with civilian law enforcement activities.” They argued in court papers that the Posse Comitatus Act, which “has long embodied our Nation’s commitment to limiting military intrusion into civilian affairs,” was threatened when troops were sent to accompany immigration agents carrying out raids.

Breyer, a President Bill Clinton appointee, wrote dismissively in his ruling of the Trump administration’s rationale for deploying troops to Los Angeles in the first place, saying that they were dispatched “ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced.”

“There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence,” Breyer wrote. “Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.”

Breyer suggested that granting an injunction in this case was warranted, in part, because hundreds of troops remain in Los Angeles who “have already been improperly trained” about what they can and cannot do. He also highlighted Trump’s rhetoric about deploying troops to other cities, “thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”

The Trump administration pushed back on the idea that troops in Los Angeles were carrying out law enforcement actions. The Justice Department argued in court papers that the troops were acting instead to protect federal law enforcement, saying “the National Guard and Marines do not engage in law enforcement merely because they protect those who do.”

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the Los Angeles deployment was a success and the judge’s ruling “will not be the final say on the issue.”

“Once again, a rogue judge is trying to usurp the authority of the Commander-in-Chief to protect American cities from violence and destruction,” Kelly said. “President Trump saved Los Angeles, which was overrun by deranged leftist lunatics sowing mass chaos until he stepped in.”

Newsom (D) extolled Breyer’s ruling, saying the judge “sided with democracy and the Constitution.”

“Trump’s attempt to use federal troops as his personal police force is illegal, authoritarian, and must be stopped in every courtroom across this country,” Newsom said in a statement.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said in a statement that Trump had “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.”