The judge says that the use by the administration of Trump of the American soldiers in Los Angeles violated federal law
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth violated the federal law using the US military to help carry out law enforcement activities in Los Angeles and around Los Angeles this summer.
US district judge Charles Breyer concluded that Trump’s use of thousands of federal members of the National Guard of California and American Marines to ensure the protection of federal agents during an aggressive immigration repression in the Los Angeles region dates back to the law on comitatus troops, a 19th century law which generally prohibits the use of troops for national purposes.
Breyer’s decision, which held a trial of several days last month on the use by Trump of the military in the State, comes when the president weighs whether to send members of the National Guard to other cities, including those in California and Illinois.
“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth declared their intention to call the troops of the National Guard in service in other cities across the country,” wrote Breyer in his 52 -page opinion, “… creating a national police force with the president as a chief.”
“The evidence during the trial established that the defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often masked by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and blocks of traffic, engage in the control of crowds and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in Los Angeles.
In an effort to avoid new violations of the Posse Comitatus Act in California, Breyer prevented Trump and Hegseth from using troops there for “arrests, apprehensions, research, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, collection of evidence, question or as informators”.
The judge interrupted this part of his decision until next Friday to give the administration time to call it.
This story breaks and will be updated.
