The department said the California governor was endangering lives with a ‘crass political stunt.’
The Department of Justice is urging a federal judge not to grant California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request to limit the president’s direction of National Guard troops amid riots in Los Angeles.
“In a crass political stunt endangering American lives, the governor of California seeks to use this court to stop the president of the United States from exercising his lawful statutory and constitutional power to ensure that federal personnel and facilities are protected,” department attorneys said in a June 11 filing.
Newsom sued the Trump administration on June 9, alleging that the president illegally took control of the state’s National Guard.
He soon followed with a request for a temporary restraining order that would prevent President Donald Trump from deploying federalized National Guard troops to assist federal agents in enforcing federal law.
He also requested that the judge prevent federalized troops from patrolling communities or engaging in law enforcement activities “beyond the immediate vicinity of federal buildings or other real property owned or leased by the federal government.”
In opposing that request, the Justice Department maintained that neither the National Guard nor deployed Marines were engaged in law enforcement.
“Rather, they are protecting law enforcement, consistent with longstanding practice and the inherent protective power to provide for the safety of federal property and personnel,” the department’s filing read.
It also said that “an injunction would not only hinder federal law enforcement but also expose federal employees and property to violence and vandalism by the rioters in Los Angeles.”
The filing is the latest salvo in an ongoing battle between Newsom and Trump, who said California officials failed to protect Los Angeles amid riots that started in reaction to activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In his lawsuit, Newsom accused Trump of intruding on state authority and violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits domestic uses of the military.
Law enforcement, he said, was within the realm of state authority.
Part of the Justice Department’s filing argued that the president “has an inherent constitutional authority to protect the federal government, and the Posse Comitatus Act does not change that.”
By Sam Dorman
