Judge opens hearing in California challenge to Trump over LA deployment

Michael Wilner and Queenie Wong, Los Angeles Times on Jun 12, 2025

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A critical hearing is underway in federal court over President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco is presiding over the case, brought by California against the Trump administration earlier this week after a historic weekend in L.A. County. The state contends that Trump exceeded his authority in an “unprecedented power grab” by federalizing the Guard without the consent of Gov. Gavin Newsom, and by deploying Marines on American soil.

“We expect an order from the court making clear what’s lawful and what’s unlawful, and part of that is making clear that the deployment of the National Guard by Trump is unlawful,” California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.

“He might just strike down that deployment,” Bonta added, “returning the National Guard to the command of its appropriate commander-in-chief, the governor

The Trump administration, on the other hand, argued in a brief to the court that it has no role reviewing the matter.

“Courts did not interfere when President Eisenhower deployed the military to protect school desegregation. Courts did not interfere when President Nixon deployed the military to deliver the mail in the midst of a postal strike. And courts should not interfere here either,” the Justice Department said.

Protests emerged across Los Angeles on Friday in response to a series of flash raids by Customs and Border Enforcement agents across the county. A handful of agitators among the protesters committed violence and vandalism, prompting Trump to first threaten, and then quickly deploy, the California National Guard to respond. He added active-duty Marines to the operation on Monday. Protests, and some sporadic violent rioting, have continued since the deployments.

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(Wilner reported from Washington and Wong from San Francisco.)

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