From left, California Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta
California Democrats have returned to federal court to oppose President Donald Trump yet again, this time asserting the president overstepped his authority by calling in the National Guard to assist the federal and local police response to riots in response to federal immigration enforcement activities in and around Los Angeles.
On June 9, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced they were filing suit in federal court to seek a court order attempting to block the White House from "federalizing" the California National Guard in response to the riots that erupted over the weekend.
In statements announcing the legal action, Newsom and Bonta said Trump unlawfully activated up to 2,000 California National Guard soldiers for up 60 days and assigned them to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal officers, who were being assailed by rioters - who Newsom and Bonta have called "protestors."
On Sunday, June 8, Trump issued the order to the California National Guard under the federal law governing the "National Guard in Federal Service." Under that law, the president is authorized to activate National Guard units under federal orders, should the president determine their service is needed to respond to an invasion of the U.S. or a rebellion.
"... The President may call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws," that federal law says.
The law has been used in the past by President Lyndon B. Johnson to compel desegregation in Arkansas public schools and by President Richard Nixon to deliver mail when U.S. Postal Service workers went on strike.
However, Bonta and Newsom still asserted Trump had called up the California Guard units illegally.
Bonta and Newsom - who have repeatedly joined in lawsuits challenging Trump's orders and executive actions since Trump began his second term as president in January - asserted the situation in Los Angeles was not far gone enough to justify the use of the National Guard and further asserted Trump had not properly sought approval from Newsom before activating the California National Guard units.
Trump's actions came after Newsom and other California Democrats had repeatedly criticized the ICE immigration enforcement actions and had asserted federal authorities were to blame for the unrest that followed.
In their statements, Newsom and Bonta continued to blame the Trump administration and their immigration enforcement actions for the violence and unrest in Paramount, California, and elsewhere - not the rioters who have blocked traffic, threatened officers and bystanders, lit vehicles on fire, looted stores, attempted to attack federal facilities in L.A., and fired commercial grade firecrackers and thrown large rocks, chunks of concrete and even motorized scooters at federal agents and Los Angeles Police officers who were attempting to carry out law enforcement activities or restore order.
Yet, Bonta and Newsom, in their statements, asserted that is the fault of Trump for sending in federal agents and the National Guard.
In their statement, Bonta and Newsom asserted that "by the time the National Guard arrived Sunday morning, the protests had dissipated and streets were quiet, but soon after the National Guard arrived, tensions reignited, leading to the very sort of unrest the National Guard was supposedly sent in to quell."
“Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion," Bonta said. "The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. Federalizing the California National Guard is an abuse of the President’s authority under the law – and not one we take lightly. We’re asking a court to put a stop to the unlawful, unprecedented order.”
As of 3:30 p.m. Pacific on June 9, a complaint had not yet been filed in the Northern District of California.
