Trump lawyers argue L.A. intervention was legal
President Donald Trump's takeover of the California National Guard to combat protests in Los Angeles against immigration raids was needed to prevent a possible 'rebellion against the authority of the government,' lawyers for the Trump administration told a federal judge Wednesday.
And they said it was an action that required no approval from Gov. Gavin Newsom or the courts.
'There is no rioters' veto to enforcement of federal law,' Justice Department attorney Christopher Edelman said in a filing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Quoting a federal statute, he said it 'empowers the President to determine what forces 'he considers necessary' to 'suppress' a 'rebellion' or to 'execute' federal 'laws' — not the Governor, and not a federal court.'
The filing opposed California officials' request for a court order prohibiting National Guard troops and U.S. Marines dispatched by the Trump administration from taking over law enforcement in Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer has scheduled a hearing on Thursday.
After raids and arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs agents drew protests, some of them violent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commissioned 4,000 California National Guard members and 700 Marines to fend off the protesters and protect ICE officers.
It was the first time a president had deployed National Guard officers without the state's consent since 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights marchers after Gov. George Wallace refused to do so. In a court filing Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the deployment was unnecessary, potentially dangerous, and — because it lacked Newsom's consent — also illegal.
Those objections amounted to 'a crass politician stunt endangering American lives,' the Trump administration contended Wednesday.
Federal law authorizes the president to commandeer a state's National Guard forces to fend off a 'rebellion' against the government or to make it possible for officers to enforce federal laws. One or both of those conditions exists in Los Angeles, Edelman said in the court filing.
News coverage of events since Friday shows 'mobs resisting federal authority in a manner that rises to the level of rebellion,' the government's lawyer said. 'The President cannot be hamstrung by the governor's insistence that state and local authorities are up to the task, particularly when the evidence on the ground shows otherwise.'
At the very least, Edelman said, the evidence supports Trump's conclusion that the ICE officers were 'unable to execute federal law' without National Guard assistance.
'The President reasonably made both of those determinations here, and they are not subject to judicial second-guessing,' Edelman said. He cited an 1827 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Martin v. Mott, that upheld former President James Madison's decision to call state militias into action during the War of 1812.
The law also specifies that any federal takeover of a state's National Guard forces must be made 'through' the state's governor. Bonta's office said Trump had violated the law by failing to consult with Newsom or seek his approval, but Edelman said the law merely requires the president to notify the governor, and that Trump had complied by contacting Newsom's adjutant general, the guard's commanding officer.
Meanwhile, California's position drew backing Wednesday from attorneys general in 18 other states, in a statement released by Bonta's office.
'The federal administration should be working with local leaders to keep everyone safe, not mobilizing the military against the American people,' they said. 'We support Attorney General Bonta in his challenge to the Trump administration's illegal conduct.'
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