California Gov. Gavin Newsom is celebrating a court ruling that went against the Trump administration’s use of National Guard troops in California during immigration enforcement operations this past June.
In a social media post, Newsom’s office highlighted part of the ruling, which said: “because there is an ongoing risk that Defendants [Trump] will act unlawfully and thereby injure Plaintiffs [California], the Court ENJOINS Defendants from violating the Posse Comitatus Act.”
“The people of California won much needed accountability against Trump’s ILLEGAL militarization of an American city!” the post added.
Federal judge Charles Breyer found that the Trump administration had violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a law from the 1800s that bars the U.S. military from acting as a domestic police force without approval from Congress. According to the case, the Department of Defense deployed about 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to Los Angeles during immigration operations.
Breyer acknowledged that protests had taken place in Los Angeles, with some incidents of violence, but said there was no rebellion and that civilian law enforcement was still able to handle the situation. “In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act,” he wrote.
NBC News noted that California asked Breyer to order the Trump administration to return control of the troops to Newsom and to stop using the military “to execute or assist in the execution of federal law.”
The Department of Justice argued that the deployment was needed to protect federal buildings and staff, insisting that the military had acted within the limits of the law.
But Breyer disagreed, warning that such actions could amount to “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”
