Trump violated the law by deploying the Los Angeles Guard, Marines: Judge

Write down one for the Constitution.

A federal judge has stop temporarily The deployment of President Donald Trump of the National Guard and the United States Marines to Los Angeles against the wishes of the governor of California Gavin Newsom, Finding the president violated an American Roca Law known as the Postse Comitatus Law.

An appeal of the Department of Justice is present.

The decision was clear from the beginning. “Congress clearly spoke in 1878 when it approved the POSSE Commitatus Law, prohibiting the use of the United States Army to execute national law,” Breyer wrote before detailing the actions of the Trump administration by sending troops to Los Angeles to cancel a rebellion apparently, in the form of protests on immigration networks.

“In fact, there were protests in Los Angeles, and some people participated in violence,” Breyer acknowledged. “However, there was no rebellion, nor could the Civil Police respond to protests and enforce the law.”

“In summary, the defendants violated the Postse Comitatus law,” he wrote, adding that the law was violated “deliberately” and that the Department of Defense “contradicts their own training materials that listed 12 functions that the Law POSSE COMMITTUS prohibits the military from making the military.”

According to the judge’s order, the Trump administration will be blocked to “deploy, order, instruct, train or use the National Guard, and any military troop so far deployed in California, to execute the laws”, unless it can show “a valid constitutional or legal exception” to the law.

In the heyday of Trump’s response, there were more than 4,000 of the National Guard and 700 Marines deployed in Los Angeles, which caused Newsom to sue the administration. Currently, about 300 troops are left in Los Angeles.

David McNew through Getty Images

Breyer’s order on Tuesday only applies to California. But any attempt by the president to deploy troops elsewhere to help with the application of civil law, as Trump suggested that he will do so in Chicago, could now face great winds against.

To send to the Marines and grab California National Guard, Trump issued a wide memorandum In June, that invoked a dark statute known as section 12406 that said that it essentially allowed him to neglect the Comitatus Posse Law if there is an ongoing rebellion against the United States government or the government’s authority to enforce federal laws. To justify its use, Trump said the protests in response to immigration raids led by the Department of National Security and immigration control and customs described as “rebellion.”

California Rob Bronta and Newsom attorney, however, argued that the deployment was a drastic overreach in the state’s sovereign powers and completely unnecessary. In general, the National Guard troops only deploy at the request of state or city officials. In the trial, the intelligence and security evaluation reports of the federal and local application confirmed that the concerns for life and property were low before and after raids were made and troops were deployed.

Breyer had issued a temporary restriction order In June, that blocked the seizure of the National Guard of the National Guard Administration, discovering that Trump probably violated the law when he went to those troops. Breyer discovered that the president’s conduct was “both exceeding the scope of his legal authority and violating the tenth amendment.” However, the judges of the 9th Court of Appeals of the United States Circuit quickly blocked Breyer’s order, and California challenged the decision, which led to the trial in San Francisco last month.

Bonta announced the ruling as a victory not only for California but also for the Constitution in general.

“Today’s ruling states that President Trump is not the king, and the power of the Executive is not unlimited. For more than two months, the president has participated in the political theater, using troops and marines of the National Guard as pawns to promote his anti -immigrant agenda. In doing so, he approached one of the basic foundations of our democracy: that our military is the military and the activities of the United States. ”Said Bonta on Tuesday.

When he was contacted to comment, the Department of Defense sent all questions to the White House; The White House did not immediately respond to a comment request on Tuesday.

According to Breyer’s order, the evidence in the trial made it clear that the Trump administration had used the military to “reinforce” the operations for the administration of drug control, as well as for the National Security Department and used military personnel to enforce the law, even through the formation of perimeters and armed blockages, participating in the control of the crowd. Often, the judge said, there was a greater number of military personnel in several places than the agents of the civil law, and the point of the presence of the troops was “to demonstrate a military presence in Los Angeles and its surroundings.”

Apu Gomes through Getty Images

The violations of the POSSE Comitatus Law were “part of a systemic effort from top to bottom of the defendants to use military troops to execute several federal law sectors (at least drug laws and immigration laws) in hundreds of miles during several months, and counting,” Breyer wrote.

The so -called “exceptions” that the troops received received to “excuse illegal military behavior,” Breyer added, noting that these instructions “arrived” from the top “of the Department of Defense.”

The actions of Trump and Hegseth and his shared intention to call the troops to the federal service in other places effectively created a “National Police force with the president as his boss,” the judge bristled.

Breyer’s order prohibits troops in California to arrest, detain people, searches or seizures or participate in security or traffic patrols, crowd control, disturbance control, test collection and interrogation. They are also prohibited from acting as informants. But this prohibition will not enter into force until September 12. This gives the administration time to formally appeal.

Bonta said Tuesday that he expects the Trump administration to do what he usually does when he loses a fight in the court: throwing insults to the judges and claiming judicial exaggeration.

“If you don’t want to have judicial orders against you, stop violating the law,” Journalists told journalists during a press conference on Tuesday. “We follow the judicial orders in the United States of America. This order has teeth. It has force … it is clear about what is prohibited. If the Trump administration does not agree with it, they can do what the appropriate is: appealing … the appropriate remedy is not to take the margin and criticize and undermine the courts.”

As for the withdrawal of Los Angeles troops, Bonta said that the public will have to “be attentive” about when and if that will happen. Technically, he said, the military can still protect, protect and defend federal property.

“They could address fentanyl, or forest fires, instead of sitting in or federal buildings, protecting them from non -threats, attacks or attacks. If this is how the president wants to waste the time of these patriots and make them feel in federal buildings without threats, we believe that this is potentially fulfilled with the orders of the court,” said Bont.

CORRECTION: This story has been amended to correct the year in which the POSSE Comitatus law became law.