California Attorney General Rob Bonta was in San Francisco federal court Friday seeking a court order ending the Trump administration’s continued federalization and deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles.
In June, President Donald Trump deployed 4,000 California National Guard troops and 800 Marines to LA in the wake of protests against his administration’s brutal immigration enforcement crackdown. As of today, about 100 National Guard troops remain in the city. Meghan Strong, a lawyer representing Bonta, told the court that there’s “no legal basis to have even a single soldier in Los Angeles.”
US District Judge Charles Breyer spent most of today’s 90-minute hearing grilling Eric Hamilton, a lawyer representing the so-called Department of War, about whether the continued deployment in LA is justified, especially when the protests have quieted.
“Like diamonds, it’s forever?” Breyer asked. The judge pressed Hamilton for any evidence that the Los Angeles Police Department or Sheriff’s Department are unable or unwilling to protect federal property. “No crisis lasts forever,” Breyer said. “Crises come, and crises go.”
Hamilton said the remaining National Guard troops are assisting a “rapid response force” of Department of Homeland Security agents conducting immigration enforcement. Hamilton repeatedly raised the arrest Monday of a man who threw Molotov cocktails at the Edward R. Roybal federal building in downtown Los Angeles to make the case that National Guard troops continue to serve a role protecting federal property. Hamilton said the threat of a “rebellion” persists in Los Angeles today.
“Really?” Breyer asked. “Tell me, what is the evidence supporting that … Is every violent protest a rebellion?” The judge wondered aloud if illegal dangerous acts of violence are “codefinitional” with rebellion. “This is sort of Alice in Wonderland, where words mean what people want them to mean?”
At the conclusion of the hearing, Breyer attempted to be gracious. “They will say it was a lively exchange of views between us,” he said to Hamilton. He told the lawyer that if it were a football match, the time of possession weighed heavily in his favor. “I thought you did a very fine job,” Breyer said.
The judge said he’ll rule soon.
Bonta doesn’t usually attend court hearings, leaving that to his staff lawyers. At a press conference after the hearing, Bonta said he was in court because the arguments were of particular interest. The Attorney General’s office has filed 48 lawsuits in 45 weeks against the Trump administration, he said. It is waiting for an appeals court decision in a related lawsuit, also argued before Breyer.
The continued deployment of National Guard troops is another example of how the administration has been “blatant and brazen, consistent and frequent in its violation of the law,” Bonta said.
California filed its suit “to make sure that our cities are not militarized,” he added.
“We very strongly believe that the National Guard is not the Royal Guard, that the National Guard is not the president’s traveling private army to deploy where he wants, when he wants, for as long as he wants for any reason he wants,” Bonta said. “Or for no reason at all.”
