(The Center Square) – A ruling on whether to limit the California National Guard and Marines’ role in Los Angeles could come soon, a federal judge said during an hourlong hearing Thursday afternoon in San Francisco.
A sense of urgency was expressed by an attorney representing California. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion Tuesday to prevent the National Guard and Marines from doing anything in downtown Los Angeles beyond protecting federal buildings and properties. Since their arrival early Sunday morning, the National Guard has guarded federal buildings.
Newsom’s and Bonta’s motion is to keep the National Guard and Marines from going onto Los Angeles streets for law enforcement purposes. It was filed Tuesday and is among the developments in a downtown area that has seen protests and riots in recent days over last week’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
The Los Angeles situation over the National Guard and Marines needs “immediate resolution,” Nicholas Green, a lawyer representing California, told U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer.
Breyer, whose brother is retired liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, asked Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate why the memorandum on federalizing the National Guard went to the state’s adjutant general instead of Gov. Gavin Newsom, as required by Title 10 of the U.S. Code for the Armed Forces. The Trump administration has cited that code as giving it the statutory authority to federalize the National Guard without Newsom’s permission.
Shumate, the assistant attorney general who heads the DOJ’s Civil Division, noted Newsom was aware of the order because he reacted to it publicly.
According to media reports, the judge during the hearing rejected the Department of Justice’s argument that military matters should be decided by presidents, not courts. Breyer countered that monarchies and presidencies aren’t the same thing, with the difference being presidential authority is limited.
In another development in the case, the Governor’s Office Thursday noted veterans of U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy filed an amicus brief in support of Newsom’s and Bonta’s motion.
“Veterans of our military agree that President Trump’s takeover of Los Angeles is not only illegal – it poses a dangerous and serious risk to Americans who may find themselves in the crosshairs of troops ordered to act against their fellow Americans,” Newsom said.
The U.S. Department of Justice argued in its brief responding to the motion that the deployment of 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines became necessary because of violent rioters who “targeted and damaged federal buildings, injured federal personnel and impeded federal functions.”
A visit by The Center Square to downtown Los Angeles Tuesday found graffiti completely covering the exterior of the ground floor of a federal building on Los Angeles Street.
Thursday’s hearing came as the clock got a bit closer to 8 p.m., when downtown Los Angeles will see its third night with a 10-hour, dusk-to-dawn curfew. Since the curfew was first imposed Tuesday, the city has seen a dramatic reduction in the nighttime violence and looting seen earlier during the riots.
As part of the Los Angeles Police Department’s continued efforts on crowd control, the on- and off-ramps for Highway 101, a major freeway through downtown Los Angeles, were closed again Thursday. The ramps’ closures on Tuesday meant an additional 15 or so minutes to get into the downtown area on alternate routes.
LAPD reported in a news release it and its law enforcement partners made 71 arrests Wednesday night for failure to disperse. Other arrests included seven people for curfew violations, two arrests for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and one arrest for resisting an officer.
