Overview

• U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer concluded in a 52-page opinion that National Guard members and Marines in Los Angeles carried out police functions, violating the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.
• The injunction bars federalized troops in California from arrests, searches, seizures, traffic or crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogations, and similar activities unless a valid legal exception is met.
• The order is limited to California and is temporarily stayed, with roughly a few hundred Guard members still in the region after an initial deployment of about 4,000 Guard and 700 Marines in June.
• The Justice Department and administration officials maintain the mission was to protect federal personnel and property, have signaled an appeal, and say the military will remain for now.
• The case stems from Governor Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit; a prior Breyer order restoring state control was stayed by the 9th Circuit, and Breyer warned that similar deployments risk creating “a national police force with the President as its chief.”