A federal judge has blocked US President Donald Trump’s administration from using the military to fight crime in California, as the Republican president threatens to send troops to more US cities including Chicago.
San Francisco-based US District Judge Charles Breyer found that the Trump administration violated a law known as the Posse Comitatus Act with its June deployment of 4000 National Guard and 700 active duty US Marines to Los Angeles. The law sharply limits the use of federal troops for domestic enforcement.
The decision dealt a setback to Trump’s push to expand the role of the military on US soil, which critics say is a dangerous expansion of executive authority that could spark tensions between troops and ordinary citizens.
Breyer put the ruling on hold until September 12. The Trump administration is likely to appeal.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly called Breyer a “rogue judge” and said the military deployment had saved Los Angeles from “mass chaos.”
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“The president is committed to protecting law-abiding citizens, and this will not be the final say on the issue,” Kelly said in an emailed statement.
The injunction applies only to the military in California, not nationally.
But the judge said that Trump’s stated desire to send troops to Chicago and other cities provided support for his ruling, noting that the president said at an August 27 cabinet meeting that he had the right to “do anything I want to do … if I think our country is in danger.”
Trump has said the troops were needed in Los Angeles to protect federal agents carrying out immigration enforcement, after large-scale immigration raids triggered protests.
https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/us-judge-blocks-trumps-use-of-troops-in-california-c-19891929
