A Clinton-appointed federal judge has just ruled that President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy thousands of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles County amid violent protests against immigration enforcement operations violated federal law.
On Tuesday, Judge Charles Breyer of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California said Trump ran afoul of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the use of the military to enforce domestic law.
The activist judge is the younger brother of liberal former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Breyer claimed the administration “systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles.”
The Trump administration countered that the roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines deployed to Los Angeles were sent only to protect federal buildings, property, and personnel as violent anti-ICE riots escalated in the city.
Breyer’s injunction, which takes effect in 10 days, prohibits the military personnel still stationed in Los Angeles from “engaging in arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or