A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in California based on “an ongoing risk” that the president will act unlawfully.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco wrote that Congress was clear in the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act that lawmakers prohibited using the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement.
But he ruled that there was no rebellion when Trump deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles in June, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that immigration law was enforced. Breyer cited plans to expand the guard deployment to Oakland and San Francisco, and other states across the country.
“Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law,” Breyer 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, 300 National Guard members remain stationed there.”
A federal appeals court had previously decided in June that Trump could keep control of the National Guard, after an earlier ruling from Breyer that Trump had deployed the National Guard unlawfully.
