Judge Bans Trump From Using National Guard To Enforce Law in California

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump acted unlawfully in sending the National Guard into California to counter violent Los Angeles protests.

In a decision published early Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer, a former Watergate prosecutor, said Trump and his administration violated an 1878 law that limits military involvement in domestic law enforcement.

The case concerns Trump’s June federalization of the California National Guard and deployment of active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to support federal authorities as they carried out immigration raids. That move was a response to a series of violent anti-immigration enforcement protests.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized Trump’s decision, saying in a post on X, “Local law enforcement didn’t need help” but “Trump sent troops anyway — to manufacture chaos and violence.”

In June, Newsom, along with the state of California, filed a complaint against Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the Department of Defense, alleging they acted unlawfully in sending in troops.

Lawyers representing California asked the court to order the Trump administration to return control of the National Guard to Newsom and to stop using the military to “execute or assist in the execution of federal law.”

In his Tuesday opinion, Breyer sided with Newsom and California, ruling that Trump violated the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits using the military to enforce domestic laws unless explicitly authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress—or under certain exceptions, such as in case of an insurrection.

The Trump administration argued that its actions fell under that exception, calling the violent resistance to federal immigration authorities a rebellion.

But Breyer, a Clinton appointee and the brother of liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, said that while there “were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence, … there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.”

Breyer’s decision may have little impact on California itself, as only about 300 National Guard troops remain stationed in L.A. However, it could have further-reaching effects for the Trump administration, which has already deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. and has threatened to do so as a response to crime in blue cities across the country.

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