Trump used National Guard illegally in Los Angeles, judge rules

The Trump administration violated federal law by deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles to enforce U.S. law, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent nearly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the city in early June to quell protests and riots over immigration enforcement. California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued to block their actions.

The government violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the U.S. military from executing domestic law, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said. The unrest in Los Angeles, which included property damage and violence, didn’t qualify as a rebellion requiring military response, he said. Breyer also disagreed with the Trump administration’s defense that the troops simply protected federal agents, rather than helping enforce the law.

Though Breyer’s ruling only applied to California, he also wrote that he was concerned about the government’s plans to deploy the National Guard in other U.S. cities. Troops shouldn’t be used as a national police force, he said.

What did Breyer order the government to do? He didn’t order the withdrawal of the 300 troops remaining in Los Angeles, but he said the government must stop using them to execute laws by Sept. 12. The troops could no longer engage in activities such as security patrols, arrests, searches, or crowd control after that date, he said.

How did the plaintiffs and defendants respond? Newsom called the ruling another loss for Trump. The White House said it planned to appeal the decision, and that the judge was trying to usurp Trump’s authority as commander-in-chief, according to the Associated Press. During a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Trump added that he planned to send federal resources to Chicago. When a reporter asked him if he intended to send the National Guard, he responded that federal resources were going in, but he declined to specify when.

Dig deeper: Read my report on a previous ruling temporarily allowing Trump’s use of the National Guard after Newsom sued.