A federal judge in California cited President Donald Trump’s threat to send National Guard troops into Chicago as he ruled against Trump’s use of the military in Los Angeles and accused the president of a “serious” violation of federal law.
Still, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer made clear that his 52-page order applies only to Trump’s use of the National Guard in California. It prohibits Trump from using troops there to execute the law, including for arrests, security patrols, traffic and crowd control or riot control.
The order does not go into effect until Sept. 12, giving the Trump administration time to appeal. But it comes while Illinois officials are promising legal action against the White House if the president follows through on his threat in Chicago.
The California judge found that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “instigated a months-long deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles for the purpose of establishing a military presence there and enforcing federal law.
“Such conduct is a serious violation of the Posse Comitatus Act,” Breyer wrote.
The act prohibits federal troops from engaging in civilian law enforcement except when authorized by law.
Breyer also rejected Trump’s claim of a “constitutional exception,” in which the White House argued that “the president has inherent constitutional authority to protect federal property, federal personnel, and federal functions, so any actions that can be construed as such ‘protection’ are lawful in spite of the Posse Comitatus Act.
“This assertion is not grounded in the history of the Act, Supreme Court jurisprudence on executive authority, or common sense,” Breyer wrote.
The judge handed down his ruling as Trump continues to threaten to send National Guard troops to Chicago. The Department of Defense has secured Naval Station Great Lakes near North Chicago for an immigration blitz starting this week, two sources confirmed for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday said the Trump administration would soon expand immigration operations here. She said it was a Trump “prerogative” whether to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as he did in Los Angeles.
Trump’s deployment of 4,000 California National Guard troops there in June followed clashes between protesters and immigration authorities that turned violent at times. In his order Tuesday, Breyer cited protesters who threw “concrete chunks” and “bottles of liquid” at federal officers, and even a moment when an ICE agent was briefly trapped in a car.
Rather than invoke the Insurrection Act, Trump cited a separate law allowing the president to call into federal service members of the National Guard of any state if there is an invasion or rebellion — or if the president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Trump administration back in June. It found that courts had a role to play in reviewing Trump’s decision-making. But it also concluded they must be “highly deferential” to the president on the matter.
It found that Trump “likely acted within his authority” to send the troops into Los Angeles.
Breyer insisted Tuesday that the law Trump invoked in California is not an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, though. His order also criticized the 9th Circuit’s ruling, suggesting it would let a president federalize National Guard troops to enforce tax, drug, election or environmental laws.
The 9th Circuit’s ruling, coupled with the Trump administration’s arguments, “would create a loophole in the Posse Comitatus Act that would swallow the entire Act — and the Insurrection Act along with it,” Breyer wrote.
The law used in California “would place no meaningful guardrails on the federalization and use of National Guard troops and would thereby render the Insurrection Act redundant,” Breyer added.
The judge noted in his order that “Los Angeles was the first U.S. city where President Trump and Secretary Hegseth deployed troops, but not the last.” He noted Trump’s later deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. in response to the crime rate there.
The judge added that, “President Trump has since raised similar criticisms about Oakland, Baltimore, Chicago and San Francisco, insinuating that he intends to send the National Guard or military to those cities.”