Judge Rules Trump’s Deployment of National Guard in California Illegal

AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

UPDATE: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Trump administration an administrative stay of the District Court decision, allowing the president to keep the National Guard deployed while a three-judge panel considers the case.

A federal judge in California ruled on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in the state to quell protests is illegal.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said that the unrest in Los Angeles falls “far short of ‘rebellion.'”

“While Defendants have pointed to several instances of violence, they have not identified a violent, armed, organized, open and avowed uprising against the government as a whole,” he wrote. “The definition of rebellion is unmet.”

Breyer stayed his order until noon on Friday.

Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carried out raids in the city’s garment district to scoop up migrant workers. They also conducted a raid outside a Home Depot to look for undocumented laborers there as well. The actions are part of Trump’s nationwide mass deportation effort. Those raids prompted a series of protests across the Los Angeles area, which saw scattered instances of vandalism. In response, Trump federalized 4,000 National Guard soldiers and deployed 700 Marines.

Governor Gavin Newsom vehemently opposes the measures. It is the first time since 1965 that a president has federalized a state’s National Guard over the objection of its governor.

On Monday, CNN’s Elie Honig said the statute the Trump administration is using to justify the federalization of the Guard has been used just once.

“It was in 1970, and it involved the postal workers’ strike where Richard Nixon deputized the National Guard to deliver the mail,” he explained. “So, a very different scenario. That one didn’t even go to the courts. So, we are really in unknown territory here.”