U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled the Trump administration violated federal law by sending National Guard and active-duty U.S. Marines to Los Angeles earlier this summer in response to protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reports CBS News:
Breyer found that the president and his administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a 1878 law that prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
Breyer blocked the Trump administration from deploying or using the National Guard currently deployed in California, and any military troops in the state, for civilian law enforcement.
His decision restricts the use of service members to engage in arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures and traffic and crowd control. The injunction applies only to the Trump administration’s use of the National Guard in California, not nationally, and it does not require the Defense Department to withdraw the 300 National Guard troops who remain in Los Angeles.
Breyer noted that the administration is not prohibited from using troops consistent with the Posse Comitatus Act, and wrote that they can continue to protect federal property in a manner allowed under the law.
The judge froze his injunction until noon on Sept. 12, likely to allow the Trump administration time to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
(Source: CBS News)