A federal judge barred Donald Trump from deploying the California National Guard in response to protests in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled on Thursday that the president’s takeover of the troops in California was unlawful and ordered Trump to return control of the state-level force to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Breyer wrote that “the founders” intended control of the National Guard to remain with states.
“It is not the federal government’s place in our constitutional system to take over a state’s police power whenever it is dissatisfied with how vigorously or quickly the state is enforcing its own laws,” he wrote.
While the president does have the power to mobilize the National Guard under the Insurrection Act, Breyer felt the protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Southern California failed to qualify as an insurrection.
“Individuals’ right to protest the government is one of the fundamental rights protected by the First Amendment, and just because some stray bad actors go too far does not wipe out that right for everyone,” he wrote. “The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ’rebellion.’”
Breyer’s ruling goes well beyond the request for a restraining order filed by Newsom. The governor had asked for an order that barred Marines and National Guard members deployed in Los Angeles from being used in law enforcement actions. The ruling, in effect, cancels the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to the area. The ruling orderes Trump to return control to Newsom by midday Friday.
The ruling did not order any action with regard to the several hundred Marines deployed in the state. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to answer questions from members of Congress on Thursday about how he would respond to court orders.
“What I can say is we should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy for the country,” Hegseth said during a hearing.
Read more
about the Los Angeles protests
