On Saturday, President Donald Trump instructed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to deploy "at least 2,000 National Guard personnel" in response to protests against immigration raids in California. But according to a federal lawsuit that California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed on Monday, that unilateral deployment is blatantly inconsistent with the statute that Trump cited to justify it and unconstitutionally impinges on powers that the 10th Amendment reserves to the states.
On the same day that Newsom sued Trump, Hegseth ordered an additional 2,000 California National Guard troops into federal service and deployed about 700 U.S. Marines to the Los Angeles area. "The President's federalization and deployment of the National Guard for reasons not authorized by law and without input from or consent of the Governor contravenes core statutory and constitutional restrictions," says Newsom's complaint, which he filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. "Use of the regular armed forces is similarly unlawful here."
In a motion filed on Tuesday, Newsom elaborates on that last point. "For more than a century, the Posse Comitatus Act has expressly prohibited the use of the active duty armed forces and federalized national guard for civilian law enforcement," the motion says. "And the President and Secretary Hegseth have made clear—publicly and privately—that the Marines are not in Los Angeles to stand outside a federal building."
