A federal district judge ruled that President Donald Trump improperly deployed the National Guard to quell anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles over the weekend.

District Judge Charles Breyer said during a hearing on Thursday that Trump administration lawyers were wrong to argue that judges cannot review presidential deployments of the National Guard, according to a report from NPR.

“That’s the difference between a constitutional government and King George. It’s not that the leader can simply say something and then it becomes it,” the judge asserted.

As a result, Trump must give control of the National Guard back to California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom by noon Pacific time on Friday, a decision that the administration may appeal.

NPR noted that National Guard units are typically controlled by governors, but the president can federalize them.

Trump deployed the National Guard to disperse the left-wing riots, which were prompted by ICE agents arresting illegal aliens in Los Angeles, against the will of Newsom.

That marked the first time since 1965 a president has mobilized a state National Guard despite objections from the governor.

The previous time was when President Lyndon Johnson deployed National Guard troops to protect civil rights protesters in 1965, according to NPR.

The state of California filed suit against the Trump administration, claiming that the riots in Los Angeles were already under control.

“At no point in the past three days has there been a rebellion or an insurrection,” the lawsuit said, per NPR.

“Nor have these protests risen to the level of protests or riots that Los Angeles and other major cities have seen at points in the past,” the state added.

Trump, however, said his move to deploy the National Guard was driven by his experiences during the summer of 2020, according to a report from Breitbart.

“You have to remember, I’ve been here before, and I went right by every rule, and I waited for governors to say, ‘Send in the National Guard.’ They wouldn’t do it, and they just wouldn’t do it,” Trump recounted on Tuesday.

“It kept going on and on. Got worse and worse,” Trump added.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security also defended the decision to suppress the violent riots.

“While the mainstream media and far-left politicians have lied point-blank to Americans that these riots in Los Angeles have not been violent, the American people can see with their own eyes the truth,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a media release on Tuesday.

“Rioters are throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement, defacing public property, setting cars on fire, defacing buildings, assaulting law enforcement, and burning American flags,” she continued.

“The violent targeting of law enforcement in Los Angeles by lawless rioters is despicable and Democrat politicians must call for it to end.”

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