A judge temporarily halted the Trump administration’s military deployment in Los Angeles, writing that the federal government did not have the authority to nationalize California’s National Guard.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued the temporary restraining order today after an hourlong hearing in a San Francisco federal court.
Breyer issued a stay of the injunction, allowing the administration to appeal the order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals until noon tomorrow.
Judge Breyer’s ruling was broader than what CA had expected. State Attorney General Rob Bonta had wanted to ensure that the guard members weren’t participating in civilian law and immigration enforcement, but Breyer said the federal government exceeded its authority because it did not notify Newsom, as the statute cited by the administration requires, and wrote that Trump’s actions were illegal, “both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
“He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith,” Breyer continued.
In his ruling, Judge Charles Breyer refuted a piece of the Trump administration’s rationale for calling up the National Guard, saying, “The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ’rebellion.’”
“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.”
