Judge weighs Posse Comitatus challenge to Trump's LA National Guard

A federal judge in San Francisco is weighing whether President Trump’s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June violated federal law, after protests over immigration operations. In a three-day trial, California argued that the Posse Comitatus Act generally bars military involvement in domestic law enforcement, while the Trump administration contended that the deployment was authorized under powers that permit the president to call National Guard units into federal service when the government cannot otherwise execute the laws. The judge asked pointed questions about remedies and the limits of presidential authority, and he has not announced a ruling.

The case centers on a deployment in which roughly 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines were sent to Los Angeles to protect federal property and personnel after immigration raids sparked public demonstrations. California, which had opposed the move, seeks to return control of remaining troops to the state and to bar federal forces from engaging in civilian law enforcement in California. The dispute is historic in scope, because it invites scrutiny of how far the federal government can lean on...