Newsom can demand details on Trump's deployment of troops in LA, judge rules

Sharon Bernstein, The Sacramento Bee on Jun 26, 2025

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A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the Trump administration to respond to questions about how Marines and National Guard personnel are being deployed in Los Angeles, part of an ongoing legal battle over the president’s decision to send troops to the nation’s second-largest city over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In an order released late Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer gave the White House two weeks to comply with a request from Newsom for information including whether the military is being used to conduct operations in the streets of L.A., rather than just protecting federal property as the administration has claimed.

Lawyers for Trump and Newsom have been battling on two legal fronts over the past two weeks, in a fast-moving case that was sparked by the federal response to protests over its immigration raids. After crowds gathered and became violent in response to unannounced immigration raids earlier this month, Trump federalized the National Guard without a request from Newsom, ultimately deploying 4,000 Guard members and 700 Marines.

Newsom sued on June 10 in federal court, garnering a preliminary win from Breyer that was quickly overturned by a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Now, a portion of the case remains with the appellate court, while the question of the troops’ role under a law meant to limit military actions on U.S. soil will now play out before Breyer.

At issue is the question of the role that troops may play in domestic situations. Presidents are allowed under certain circumstances to use troops to guard federal property and personnel but are generally banned from using the military to enforce federal law domestically under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.

Newsom: Anti-drug efforts harmed

In a statement Thursday, Newsom condemned the federalization as a direct threat to public safety and ongoing drug enforcement efforts in California. His office said the deployment has pulled away as many as 450 servicemembers typically at ports of entry and other locations across the state “to combat transnational criminal organizations and seize illegal narcotics.”

“As President Trump escalates his unlawful militarization of Los Angeles, his actions are directly harming California’s ability to fight the flow of illegal drugs into our communities,” Newsom said.

He noted that 32% of California Guard members working on the state’s Counterdrug Task Force had been reassigned to Los Angeles, weakening interdiction efforts that have seized tens of thousands of pounds of fentanyl. That group has confiscated nearly 31,000 pounds of the synthetic opioid and 50 million pills with the drug since 2021, he said, with an estimated street value of nearly a half-billion dollars.

“Trump is deliberately undermining that work,” Newsom said in the remarks.

Youth-focused programs and wildfire response operations have also been severely impacted.

“Cal Guard’s critical firefighting crews — known as Task Force Rattlesnake — are operating at just 40% capacity,” the Governor’s Office said, adding that eight of 14 teams were diverted to L.A.

What evidence is being sought?

The Trump administration says it has not used the military unlawfully in L.A., but lawyers for Newsom have said they want to seek hard evidence that troops are not being used to enforce domestic laws. If they find such evidence, including the use of soldiers to conduct immigration raids, they want Breyer to ban the administration from doing so.

The evidence is being sought as part of a legal process known as discovery, under which attorneys for both sides in a lawsuit may demand information from the other side in order to build a factual case. Breyer’s order on Thursday was in response to a request from Newsom to expedite discovery in the lawsuit he filed against Trump, limiting it to a two-week period that was set to begin on Friday.

Breyer’s order allows Newsom to demand information on numerous activities by troops in Los Angeles, including whether they have been involved in any enforcement actions, and whether any enforcement actions are planned. The discovery request also seeks any documents that the federal government has showing deployments or operations that are not taking place on federal property, court records show.

In granting the request, Breyer was also indicating that he planned to continue hearing arguments in the case despite ongoing proceedings at the appeals court level.

The portion of the case that is before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, meanwhile, continues on a slower course, with lawyers for both sides submitting briefs over the summer before oral arguments can be heard, likely in September or October at the earliest. In that element of the case, a panel of three judges will decide whether Breyer was correct when he ruled that Trump had taken over the Guard illegally, and ordered the president to turn over its control to Newsom.

The same panel of judges has already indicated they are deeply skeptical of Newsom’s argument, pausing his order demanding that the Guard be returned to state control just hours after it was issued.

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