Donald Trump is going to take California’s troops and his ball to the Supreme Court if he doesn’t get another win over Gavin Newsom.
In an appeals court hearing Tuesday before a three-judge panel, a Department of Justice lawyer bluntly said that they intend to go straight to SCOTUS if their POTUS client once again loses control to Gov. Newsom of being able to put the Guard troops on the streets of Los Angeles. Thousands of heavily armed Guard troops, as well as 700 U.S. Marines have been deployed in the city’s downtown core for over a week in response to protests over ongoing ICE raids and abductions of the undocumented (and in some cases, the documented).
“Your Honors, we would ask that you grant our motion for a stay pending appeal,” said the administration’s attorney to Judges Mark Bennett, Eric Miller and Jennifer Sung right at the end of the hearing. “If you deny our stay pending appeal, we would ask the court to give us an opportunity to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court,” he added of the frequently used Trump legal tactic to the conservative majority High Court.
Already apparently rendered somewhat moot if it doesn’t go Trump’s way, a ruling on the legality and constitutionality of the matter by Trump appointees Bennett and Miller and Joe Biden appointed Sung is expected in the next few days – – though its outcome may be muted by another lower court hearing set for Friday.
Brought in on June 7 after protests in L.A. over a squall of harsh ICE raids on undocumented immigrants, Trump took over the Golden State National Guard first without seemingly properly informing Newsom. In fact, in a rare display of authority in the USA, the federalization of the thousands of troops occurred over the objection of the Governor.
The deployment of an initial 2,000 troops under an obscure statute, with online assurances from the Secretary of Defense that Marines could later be sent to L.A. too, on June 8 saw a rise, not a decline in protests and violence in the streets around federal buildings where ICE-detained immigrants were being held.
“Are we in a world that’s so different from normal conditions as to justify an extreme measure like militarizing the situation and bringing in the National Guard?” Samuel Harcourt, a lawyer for the California Attorney General’s office questioned the appeals court trio today, noting that if things were as bad in L.A. as the Trump administration claimed they could have invoked the Insurrection Act.
“We don’t think the federal government has even made the first step of meeting that standard,” Harcourt said.
As City of Angels officials spoke out against Trump’s move and its reasoning that L.A. was in a state of rebellion, the LAPD stepped in to clear protesters off the streets. As has far too often been the case in the past, the cops were sometimes much more stridently, with rubber bullets fired at journalists and others onsite, enforcing their role than many believed was necessary – especially in a Sanctuary City, a status much mocked by the administration.
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Quickly taking legal action, the state of California sued the Trump administration on June 9 to halt Trump’s near unprecedented seizing of the Guard. Two days later, as tensions rose even more in DTLA and the rhetoric got more heated from the politicians, Newsom filed for an almost immediate temporary restraining order. He was denied a solution that day, but a hearing in front of Bay Area-based federal Judge Charles Breyer was set for June 12.
Mere hours after that afternoon hearing concluded, Judge Breyer made public his order that Trump “return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.” – a.k.a. by noon on June 13. Planning such a result, the DOJ were ready to file an appeal, which they did with haste. As Gov. Newsom took a media victory lap on June 12, a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals flipped the script and gave Trump back control of the Guard pending today’s hearing.
In the fog of this war of law and order vs. democratic norms between Trump and Newsom, the governor on June 16 filed a motion for preliminary injunction on the troop deployment, with a hearing before Judge Breyer on June 20 – as Judge Bennett brought up at the conclusion of Tuesday’s one-hour session.
“The tradition of civilian, rather than military, law enforcement is a core Founding principle, and Defendants’ defiance of that tradition violates the Posse Comitatus Act and the Tenth Amendment,” the filing from the state in federal court Monday notes of the stakes (read it here). “The Court should enjoin Defendants from ordering any federal troops to patrol the streets, to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) in the field, or to engage in other law enforcement activities in Los Angeles.”
Literally playing to the crowd, the 39-page document adds: “Enjoining the continued militarization of Los Angeles would restore the public’s confidence in their fundamental First Amendment right to peacefully protest, without fearing that the government will deploy the military in response.”
For all their tough talk, DOJ lawyers today emphasized that the masked ICE agents in L.A. have proven overwhelmed again and again by Angelenos trying to protect their fellow citizens from what many have deemed as “kidnappings.” Even as DTLA military and police presence seemed to wane, the cowering of the ICE agents and the besieging of the federal facilities was used Tuesday as part of the justification of the Guard remaining under Trump’s command.
Following Trump’s sparsely attended $40 million military parade in DC on June 14, which was also his 79th birthday, and the massive No Kings demonstrations across the nation the same day, the fight over who controls the National Guard troops in L.A. is increasingly becoming old news.
Still, the cruel ICE raids continue and have even intensified in L.A. and other Blue cities.
At the same time, one day after moving back the start time of the 10-day old curfew in DTLA to 10 p.m. as violence and looting in the area declines, Mayor Karen Bass today lifted the measure altogether.
“I am lifting the curfew effective today, and as we continue quickly adapting to chaos coming from Washington, and I will be prepared to reissue a curfew if needed,” the Mayor stated as the City Council voted her special powers to declare an emergency situation in downtown if required.