Last night U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a ridiculous temporary restraining order (TRO) removing President Trump’s control of the California National Guard [SEE RULING HERE]. Charles Breyer is the 83-year-old younger brother of former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
What made the TRO ruling transparently ridiculous was: (A) the state of California never requested a TRO; and (B) the citations Breyer used to underpin his decision were all left-wing media reports about the events. The facts, his facts, underpinning his judicial opinion, were wrong.
Those who follow judicial writing will note that using media reports as citations inside judicial decisions is a common attribute of Lawfare operations. Factually, it seemed unlikely District Judge Breyer even wrote his own ruling; it reads like something from Norm Eisen or Mary McCord.
This morning, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Breyer’s order just hours after he issued it [SEE RULING HERE].
The appellate intervention retains the power of President Trump as commander in chief over the California national guard. The appeals court set a Tuesday hearing on the full context of the matter, thereby ensuring Trump’s deployment will remain in place at least into next week.
California – […] The appeals court’s short-term block came after an urgent plea from the Trump administration for a ruling before midnight in Washington, saying Breyer’s decision represented a dangerous affront to Trump’s power as commander in chief to protect federal interests.
[…] The sweeping nature of Breyer’s decision [made it] vulnerable on appeal. When the state’s lawyers filed an emergency motion Tuesday seeking Breyer’s intervention, they asked only for a temporary order prohibiting the federalized National Guard troops from engaging in law enforcement or accompanying immigration officers in the field. However, the judge ruled much more broadly, declaring Trump’s order federalizing the Guard to be unlawful and ordering that those forces be returned to California’s control.
In his order, Breyer agreed that some of the protests had been accompanied by unacceptable violence. But he said the law and Constitution require far more significant degrees of violence to justify deploying the military to enforce civil laws. (read more)
