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A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated federal law by using the US military to help carry out law enforcement activities in and around Los Angeles this summer.
US District Judge Charles Breyer concluded that Trump’s use of thousands of federalized California National Guard members and US Marines to provide protection to federal agents during an aggressive immigration crackdown in the Los Angeles area ran afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th Century law that generally prohibits the use of troops for domestic law enforcement purposes.
The ruling from Breyer, who held a multi-day trial last month over Trump’s use of the military in the state, comes as the president is weighing whether to send National Guard members to other cities, including ones in California and Illinois.
“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into service in other cities across the country,” Breyer wrote in his 52-page opinion, “… thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”
“The evidence at trial established that Defendants 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. In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act,” Breyer wrote.
In an effort to stave off further violations of the Posse Comitatus Act in California, Breyer blocked Trump and Hegseth from using troops there for “arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants.”
The judge paused that part of his ruling until next Friday to give the administration time to appeal it.
This story is breaking and will be updated.