A long-awaited ruling from US District Court Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco is out, and California Governor Gavin Newsom has been granted injunctive relief prohibiting the regime from violating the Posse Comitatus Act in California. Breyer also found that the regime violated the 10th Amendment when it sent federal troops into Southern California in June and July and directed them to do security patrols, traffic control, and crowd control, against the National Guard’s own guidelines:
“There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence. Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.
“Nevertheless, at Defendants’ orders and contrary to Congress’s explicit instruction, federal troops executed the laws. The evidence at trial established that Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles. In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act.”
What Breyer’s ruling does not do: It does not apply to states outside of California, and it does not prevent the regime from deploying the National Guard to Chicago, as Trump has been slobbering to do. And it does not order the removal of the 300 or so troops that are still deployed in Southern California. But the ruling does call out the administration for knowingly breaking the law, and says no more military working as law enforcement. So perhaps if Pete Hegseth does invade Chicago on Friday like the administration says is the plan, his troops will not do law enforcement this time? We shall see.
Eeesh, look at these fucking liars, liars, pants a-fires: The National Guard’s own training materials specify 12 functions that are prohibited. But, instead, an order came to the troops in Los Angeles “all the way from the top” (as in, flowing on Sec. Def. Pete *HIC* Hegseth’s booze breath) to Army Major General Scott Sherman, to tell the troops that there was a special constitutional exception now that let them violate the rules and do security patrols, traffic control, and crowd and riot control. Which was not and has never been true. Noted the Judge:
To start, the Court is unaware of any person — government lawyer, military or civilian official, court, or commentator — who has made this argument other than Defendants’ lawyers in this case. The Department of Defense has not taken this position in its publications on the Posse Comitatus Act.
And, command also obviously knew that they were subject to the Act because they coached agencies on what to say to look like they were following it:
Specifically, law enforcement agencies were instructed to “[s]ubstitute ‘protection’ for ‘security’” and “detect, monitor, and report” for “surveillance.” RFA Email Thread. “If the requested activity cannot be converted to a ‘protection’ term,” the email stated, “then we cannot perform it.”
And yet still the troops did things that were obviously not about “protection” of federal property, or in response to some kind of a riot emergency, such as raiding marijuana farms or that ridiculous storming of MacArthur Park in “Operation Excalibur,” a mission chosen by Hegseth himself for his special group of precious assholes, called Task Force 51.
PREVIOUSLY:
Militarized Border Patrol Storms Los Angeles Park, Gets B-Roll For Kristi Noem’s OnlyFans
DHS had claimed that the force raided the park where children were attending summer camp because it was a high risk EMERGENCY due to GANG MEMBERS. And YET the Task Force had spent weeks planning to storm the park, and had done “numerous rehearsals” for their pageant, and even two trial runs for the show. They’d even originally planned to raid the park on Father’s Day, in case some cartel leaders were out throwing a frisbee with their kids, but backed off after Maj. Gen. Sherman objected.
So, no, the feds were not responding to some hair-on-fire emergency threat to federal property caused by a riot. And the Task Force did not even notify the LAPD of the plan to storm the park until two hours before. Also there were no targeted individuals in the park, much less any high-risk dangerous ones, other than some vague “gang members” Pete Hegseth hallucinated after a fifth of Wild Turkey.
In fact, the Defense Department’s own documents showed that the entire point of the MacArthur Park show was nothing but swanging their wangs and making picnickers and everyone else in the city feel like nowhere is safe:
DHS’s mission in executing Operation Excalibur was “to demonstrate, through a show of presence, the capacity and freedom of maneuver of federal law enforcement within the Los Angeles Joint Operations Area.”
Look at this insane amount of troops and equipment! Is this Fallujah?
Also Breyer found there was no imminent threat of rioting or damage to federal property when the National Guard tagged along on three ICE raids to marijuana farms. Nor when they rode along on a joint DEA–FBI operation at a private residence in Long Beach, where “Task Force 51 troops and military vehicles, in conjunction with DEA SWAT teams, cordoned off Long Beach Boulevard in two directions from the residence while DEA and FBI agents approached the residence to look for an individual who had thrown rocks during one of the June 7 protests.”
Some emergency! Your tax dollars at work!
Kristi Noem, you are lying.
Here’s Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli also lying.
At least he’s clear now that he knows the military isn’t supposed to be law-enforcing.
Oh, and here’s Essayli’s office having at least five cases against protestors dropped after federal agents got caught making false statements in court, lying that protestors had been shoving them when video showed that the feds were the ones doing the shoving.
Judge Breyer also noticed that even though Department of Defense regulations require federal troops to have their name displayed on their uniforms, they didn’t do that either:
It is difficult, even for someone familiar with military uniforms and insignia, to differentiate between the uniforms from a distance or where there is a lot of commotion. Indeed, Major General Sherman and Ernesto Santacruz—the Los Angeles field office director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations and a veteran himself—were both unable to determine whether multiple individuals in photographs of ICE enforcement actions were Task Force 51 troops or federal law enforcement personnel. Task Force 51 troops were also armed, carrying weapons with live ammunition. “In fact, many wore plain clothes instead of a uniform that would identify them as law enforcement at all.”
Armed to the teeth and disguised for no accountability. What could go wrong? And Breyer warned that Trump appears intent on “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.” And it did not escape his notice that “Excalibur is, of course, a reference to the legendary sword of King Arthur, which symbolizes his divine sovereignty as king.” Yeah, we noticed that too.
Breyer put his ruling on hold until September 12 to allow the Trump administration to appeal, which they surely will.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles is still having protests. And ICE is still rounding people up — they claim to have arrested more than 5,000 in the LA area since the takeover.
And though Trump has sent troops to Washington DC, Trump has not invaded Chicago yet. Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order that would prevent Chicago police from collaborating with the federal agents, and prohibiting them from hiding their identity. Which he may or may not be able to enforce. And Governor JB Pritzker and other Illinois leaders say they’re ready to fight, and ringing the alarm bells for democracy.
How far is Trump going to go with this thing? How far will the Supreme Court let him go, assuming this-all gets to them eventually? Will they decide he does actually get to make the military his personal police force after all, and can send the National Guard, DEA and FBI after any rock-thrower who offends his Holy Eye?
Guess we’ll all find out!
OPEN THREAD!
[Democracy Docket / Gavin Newsom v. Donald Trump / Politico ]
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