Trump's Los Angeles Troop Deployment Violated Federal Law: Judge

President Donald Trump violated federal law by deploying National Guard troops and US Marines to carry out local law enforcement in Los Angeles over the summer as protests raged against his immigration crackdown, a judge ruled.

The decision Tuesday in San Francisco blocks the Trump administration from using federal troops for law enforcement activities anywhere in California. The ruling comes as Trump continues to say he will use the military in other major American cities where he claims crime is out of control.

While the ruling is limited to California, it demonstrates how courts may respond if Trump follows through on suggestions that he'll deploy troops to other cities. The president has already activated the National Guard in Washington to crack down on what he called "out of control" crime and has threatened to do the same in Chicago and Baltimore, among other Democratic-led cities.

"I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC," Trump said Tuesday in a post on Truth Social. "Chicago will be safe again."

Tuesday's ruling, which following a three-day trial last month, rejected Trump's argument that the protests, which were sometimes violent, created an exception to a more-than century old federal statute called the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids members of the military from enforcing civilian laws except during limited circumstances such as an insurrection.

"There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence," US District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in the decision. "Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law."

The White House, however, said Trump had "saved Los Angeles, which was overrun by deranged leftist lunatics sowing mass chaos." 

"While far-left courts try to stop President Trump from carrying out his mandate to Make America Safe Again, the President is committed to protecting law-abiding citizens, and this will not be the final say on the issue," White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement. 

Crowd Control

About 300 federalized troops remain in Los Angeles, according to the ruling.

The decision bars the Trump administration from using federal troops for law enforcement activities including arrests, searches, seizures, traffic control, crowd control, interrogation or acting as informants. The ruling does not prevent the use of troops to protect federal property.

The ruling is a key victory for Newsom in the pitched legal battle over Trump's decision to federalize the state's National Guard. The judge said he was applying his injunction statewide instead of just in Los Angeles because Trump demonstrated a desire to violate the Posse Comitatus Act in other cities, including Oakland and San Francisco.

"DONALD TRUMP LOSES AGAIN," California Governor Gavin Newsom, who filed the suit in June, said in a post on X. "The courts agree - his militarization of our streets and use of the military against US citizens is ILLEGAL."

Newsom also filed a new request in court to block Trump's order extending the deployment of the remaining 300 troops through Election Day in November. 

"The federal government hasn't even tried to justify keeping the military in Los Angeles because they can't," he said in a statement.

Breyer cited a C-SPAN broadcast of Trump's Aug. 27 cabinet meeting in which he discussed sending the National Guard in Chicago. "I have the right to do anything I want to do," the judge quoted Trump as saying. "I'm the President of the United States. If I think our country is in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it."

The judge previously ruled that Trump had to return control of the National Guard to state authorities, but that ruling was put on hold by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The new ruling applies specifically to the Posse Comitatus Act.

In Los Angeles, Trump deployed about 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to the city to respond to protests sparked by raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. 

Breyer said that evidence presented during the trial showed that the Trump administration systematically used military vehicles and armed soldiers "whose identity was often obscured by protective armor" to set up traffic blockades and engage in crowd control.

'Limitless'

Breyer rejected the administration's argument that concern about the ability of federal employees to do their jobs without interruption was an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, saying that such an exception "would be limitless in principle."

"There is no question that federal personnel should be able to perform their jobs without fearing for their safety," the judge said. "But to use this as a hook to send military troops alongside federal agents wherever they go proves too much and would frustrate the very purpose of the Posse Comitatus Act."

The judge noted that Trump never invoked the Insurrection Act, which is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act. The Insurrection Act has several guardrails, such as requiring state and local officials to request federal assistance, the judge said.

"If the president wants to avoid the act's restrictions, he must invoke a valid exception - like the Insurrection Act, along with its requisite showing that state and local law enforcement are unable or unwilling to act," the judge said.

'Excalibur'

The judge also cited the use of troops for a Department of Homeland Security "show of presence" action dubbed Operation Excalibur at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, an area popular with immigrants, even though there were no "high value targets" or threats to federal property there.

"Excalibur is, of course, a reference to the legendary sword of King Arthur, which symbolizes his divine sovereignty as king," the judge wrote in a footnote of the decision.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)