Judge makes spectacular ruling on Trump’s LA military deployment that could spell doom for his plan for Chicago

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth broke federal law when ordering the U.S. military to aid Los Angeles law enforcement this summer, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer declared that Trump violated the Posse Comitatus Act by deploying U.S. Marines and federalizing the California National Guard to help put down deportation-related protests this summer.

The 1870s law restricts the executive branch’s use of the military for domestic law enforcement matters.

Breyer, a San Francisco-based judge, held a several-day trial on Trump’s deployment last month. In June, the administration sent 4,000 National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles amid immigration protests.

‘President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into service in other cities across the country,’ the judge wrote in his sprawling 52-page opinion, ‘thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief.’

‘The evidence at trial established that Defendants [Trump and Hegseth] 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,’ Breyer wrote.

The judge’s order comes after California sued Trump and Hegseth.

The decision threatens the president’s plans to expand his use of the National Guard in Democratic-held cities like Chicago, Baltimore and Los Angeles.

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s deployment of the military to deal with protests in Los Angeles earlier this year violated the law

California National Guard positioned at the Federal Building, June 10, 2025, in downtown Los Angeles

The judge ruled that Hegseth and Trump ‘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’

All the Marines deployed to Los Angeles have since returned to their original posts, though several hundred National Guard troops remain in the city, according to reports.

Trump has floated sending additional federal resources to major U.S. cities to help address crime, but the ruling on Tuesday threatens those prospects.

The president has enacted similar policies in Washington, D.C., like the federalization of the Washington, D.C., police department and deployment of the National Guard to monitor high traffic areas like shopping centers, metro stations and sports games.

Since he deployed troops to D.C., crime has gone down, and Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser has even acknowledged the dip.

‘We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,’ Bowser said last week.

Trump later wrote a glowing statement on Truth Social praising the D.C. mayor as a vital ‘partner’ and noted how her polling has been on the rise recently.

The president is clearly eager to export his crime enforcement model across the country.

‘At least 54 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend, 8 people were killed,’ Trump wrote on social media Tuesday morning.

Members of the California National Guard deployed outside a complex of federal buildings in Santa Ana, California, U.S. June, 18, 2025

Police officers, DEA agents and members of the South Carolina National Guard patrol the National Mall, weeks after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard and ordered an increased presence of federal law enforcement to assist in crime prevention, in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 1, 2025

‘The last two weekends were similar. Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far. Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet. I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC. Chicago will be safe again, and soon.’

The judge’s opinion claimed that the White House’s use of troops as de facto law enforcement broke the law.

However, Trump’s team fought back, arguing that the law was not infringed as troops were given orders to protect federal agents and officers, not to enforce laws.

‘If the purpose is the protection of law enforcement officers, it isn’t law enforcement in the first place. It’s instead protection,’ a DOJ attorney argued on behalf of the administration last month.

Breyer wrote in his opinion that if Trump attempts to expand National Guard deployments to other cities, it would be like ‘creating a national police force with the President as its chief.’