Gavin Newsom seeks injunction against Trump’s military deployment in LA

California Governor Gavin Newsom is intensifying his legal battle against President Donald Trump’s deployment of military personnel in Los Angeles in response to anti-ICE riots, calling the deployment of US military personnel to Los Angeles an “illegal militarization” of the city and a grave overreach of executive power.

On Monday, Newsom filed a legal brief in US District Court seeking a preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration’s continued use of the military, including National Guard troops and U.S. Marines, as domestic law enforcement.

Last week, a federal appeals court temporarily lifted a lower court’s order blocking the deployment. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted an administrative stay following an emergency motion from the federal government, reinstating Trump’s authority to use the National Guard in California. The appeals court ordered briefing deadlines for June 15 and 16, with a Zoom hearing held on June 17.

“The court has received the government’s emergency motion for stay pending appeal,” the Ninth Circuit wrote. “The request for an administrative stay is GRANTED. The district court’s June 12, 2025 temporary restraining order is temporarily stayed pending further order.”

Trump celebrated the appeals court’s ruling on Truth Social, posting: “The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe. If I didn't send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!”

But Newsom responded defiantly on Monday, saying Trump’s actions still violate constitutional principles and federal law. “The court rightly rejected Trump’s claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court,” Newsom said in a statement to The Post Millennial, referring to an earlier Ninth Circuit ruling on the broader issue of federalization. “The President is not a king and is not above the law. We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump’s authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens.”

Newsom’s latest court filing argues that the use of military forces must remain narrowly focused on protecting federal property during specific incidents, in this case, the protests in Los Angeles on June 6 and 7. The brief states that any extension of that deployment violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the use of the military for general law enforcement without explicit authorization.

The governor is also asking the court for expedited discovery to gather more evidence on the administration’s actions, including allegations that federal troops have participated in immigration raids and detentions in Los Angeles neighborhoods.

Newsom's office claimed that approximately 300 California National Guard troops who normally serve on wildfire response teams have been diverted to armories in Los Angeles, slashing CalGuard’s firefighting capacity by three-quarters just as wildfire season begins.

The governor’s office claimed that, out of the 4,946 National Guard members and Marines authorized for deployment, fewer than 1,000 were actually stationed in Los Angeles, noting that the federal government has spent an estimated $134 million on the deployment.

Newsom also claimed that viral videos of the chaos in Los Angeles were “old videos to justify their militarization of Los Angeles.”

Newsom also attempted to credit local police and state law enforcement for maintaining public safety, noting that over 700 arrests have been made, but didn’t acknowledge that many of the arrests were made after the National Guard was deployed.

A ruling on that motion is expected in the coming weeks.