Trump and Newsom are quickly becoming major enemies. They don’t like each other very much.
And Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom were caught trading punches during a high stakes court battle.
Federal Court Battle Over Military Deployment in LA Protests
In a highly contested legal showdown, Justice Department attorneys appeared in federal court on Monday to justify the Trump administration’s decision to send Marines and California National Guard troops to quell violent and destructive anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles back in June.
The proceedings, spanning three days in San Francisco, featured state lawyers contending that the move—fiercely opposed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom—breached a longstanding federal statute barring the use of armed forces in civilian policing roles.
The unrest traced its origins to June 6, when protests erupted in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations that detained over 100 undocumented individuals across the city.
Crowds swelled into the hundreds, voicing dissent through chants, Mexican flags, and banners criticizing ICE, while confrontations unfolded with police and immigration agents. What started as lawful assemblies quickly spiraled into chaos, marked by torched vehicles, defaced structures, and widespread looting of shops.
As disorder persisted, President Trump declared the dispatch of approximately 4,000 Coast Guard personnel and 700 active-duty Marines to restore order in the sprawling metropolis. Newsom sharply rebuked the action, labeling it as turning soldiers into “props in the federal government’s propaganda machine.”
The administration countered by pointing to California’s sanctuary policies, which restrict local authorities from aiding immigration enforcement, as justification for stepping in.
In response, Newsom initiated legal action against the administration. Federal Judge Charles R. Breyer, appointed during the Clinton era and presiding over the non-jury trial in California, initially deemed the deployment unlawful. Yet, an appellate panel swiftly overturned Breyer’s decision just hours later, allowing the operation to proceed.
By the start of July, the bulk of the National Guard and Marine contingents in Los Angeles had stood down, leaving about 300 personnel on site.
These lingering forces are “supporting the request for assistance” from federal agencies, as testified in court on Monday by William Harrington, ex-deputy chief of staff for the Army unit overseeing the Guard, per reports from the New York Times.
This case holds potential to establish key guidelines on a president’s power to involve the military in domestic affairs.
State representatives for Newsom insist that mobilizing troops to Los Angeles contravened the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which forbids presidential use of the military for enforcing civil laws.
They further claim that overriding the governor and other state leaders’ resistance infringed on the 10th Amendment, which outlines the division of authority between federal and state governments.
Additional accusations target Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for breaching the Administrative Procedure Act, with the lawsuit stating they “lack authority to federalize members of the California National Guard without issuing such orders through Governor Newsom.”
On the defense side, Trump’s legal team relies on an obscure provision—Section 12406(3) of the U.S. Code—that authorizes presidential federalization of the National Guard in specific scenarios. These include threats of invasion, active rebellions or imminent ones, or situations where regular forces cannot uphold federal laws.
California and Newsom are pushing for a court ruling affirming the illegality of Trump and Hegseth’s directives, alongside an injunction to block future activations of the state’s National Guard absent the governor’s consent.
The trial commenced amid fresh developments, as President Trump revealed plans to federalize Washington, D.C.’s police force and station National Guard units to address escalating violence in the nation’s capital.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
