The Justice Department called California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) attempt for a judge to limit President Trump’s National Guard deployment in Los Angeles a “crass political stunt endangering American lives” in a new court filing Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said he would hold a Thursday hearing before ruling on Newsom’s emergency motion, rejecting his demand for a more immediate intervention.
The new filing lays out the Trump administration’s opposition ahead of that high-stakes hearing, rejecting Newsom’s assertion that federal law requires him to consent before the president could call in the National Guard.
“Courts did not interfere when President Eisenhower deployed the military to protect school desegregation. Courts did not interfere when President Nixon deployed the military to deliver the mail in the midst of a postal strike. And courts should not interfere here either,” the Justice Department wrote in its brief.
Trump authorized more than 2,000 National Guard troops to go into Los Angeles as immigration protests erupted over the weekend that at times devolved into violence. Newsom did not request the help and accuses the administration of injecting chaos into the situation.
The statute Trump cites as justification enables the president to call the National Guard into federal service when there is a rebellion against the authority of the federal government. It adds that “orders for these purposes shall be issued through the governors of the States.”
Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s (D) lawsuit, filed on Monday, contends it requires the governor’s consent, but the government’s new filing pushes back on that notion.
“The statute imposes no such requirement. It merely directs, as a procedural matter, that the President’s orders be conveyed ‘through’ the Governor. They were,” the Justice Department wrote.
At this stage of the case, Newsom has not asked to block Trump’s deployment entirely. Instead, he urged the judge to restrict the guardsmen’s ability to do anything more than protect federal property.
“Plaintiffs’ proposed order reveals the true aim of their motion,” the Justice Department wrote in its brief.
“It is not to return National Guardsmen to California’s control, or to vindicate the (misguided) rights they claim, but instead to prevent the federal government from protecting federal officers who are carrying out law enforcement operations in Los Angeles. That interference is impermissible and groundless,” the brief continued.
Breyer, an appointee of former President Clinton who serves in San Francisco, is set to rule on the motion after a hearing scheduled for Thursday at 1:30 p.m. PDT.
Read: Read More