A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles to quell riots was unconstitutional. The president must immediately return control of the California National Guard to Governor Gavin Newsom, according to the ruling.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer granted the governor’s application for a temporary restraining order Thursday night after an emergency hearing the same day, in which he appeared to doubt the legality of the president’s action.
“At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions. He did not,” the Clinton appointee said in the decision. “His 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”
The federal government immediately filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court following the ruling, which takes effect at noon on Friday.
Despite the objection of Newsom, Trump called in 4,000 members of California’s National Guard to L.A. to quell riots when protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement turned violent over the weekend. California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office subsequently filed a lawsuit on Newsom’s behalf to block the Guard’s deployment. The state then filed an emergency motion asking the court to prevent the Guard from assisting with immigration raids, which the governor said would escalate tensions.
The Department of Justice called the legal challenge a “crass political stunt endangering American lives” in its official response Wednesday. In a brief filed ahead of the Thursday hearing, the DOJ said Trump’s orders as president were not subject to judicial review.
“Courts did not interfere when President Eisenhower deployed the military to protect school desegregation,” the department said. “Courts did not interfere when President Nixon deployed the military to deliver the mail in the midst of a postal strike. And courts should not interfere here either.”
The president has the ability to call up the National Guard in certain circumstances under an authority known as Title 10. During the hearing Thursday, Breyer said Trump did not appear to have complied with the legal requirement that the president call the National Guard of a state into service through the governor of that state.
It remains unclear how the ruling will affect the situation on the ground in L.A., as protests there continue and additional anti-ICE demonstrations pop up across the country.