California Sues Trump — But Chooses to Avoid a Power Struggle

California’s attorney general on Monday announced he had sued the federal government over President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the Golden State’s National Guard against Los Angeles protesters.

Trump made the call despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections, setting up a legal clash that could determine whether the courts will limit the White House’s increasingly aggressive use of executive power nationwide.

On a call with journalists, California Attorney General Rob Bonta described Trump’s decision as an illegal power grab that only further angered locals who were peacefully protesting ongoing ICE raids. He said the state is asking a U.S. district court judge to “set aside the president’s unlawful action federalizing the National Guard” with a temporary restraining order that would severely cut short what could be a 60-day deployment.

“Make no mistake. There was no risk of rebellion, no threat of foreign invasion,” Bonta said, noting that Trump invoked a law that has never been used this way.

By contrast, the last time it was employed was when postal workers held a wildcat strike against low wages in 1970, and President Richard Nixon declared a national emergency, invoking 10 U.S. Code § 12406 to have troops deliver mail in New York City until the dispute ended two days later.

California’s decision to head to the courts — instead of having Newsom issue counter orders to his own state’s National Guard — avoids a divisive showdown that would force military brass and soldiers under their command to independently determine whose orders they are required to follow.

“I think that would be confusing to the National Guard,” Bonta told journalists. “The appropriate way is to get a clear order from the court. We can do that very quickly … that’s the appropriate way. It’s not appropriate to unilaterally make decisions.”

A copy of the lawsuit was not immediately posted in California federal court.

The move comes after a weekend in Los Angeles that became the focal point of the president’s ongoing crackdown on immigrants. The administration has sworn to deport millions of undocumented migrants and claimed that it would target “criminals,” but videos captured by Americans nationwide have shown masked ICE agents targeting immigrants who choose to appear in court to lawfully pursue documented status within their ongoing cases.

Things came to a head in Los Angeles on Friday when armed ICE security forces apparently raided a garment business, which sparked protests seeking to slow down the operation. The demonstration led to an aggressive response by federal agents in riot gear, which only swelled the size of the angry public demonstrations.

Trump took it a step further Sunday night when the White House announced he had signed a presidential memorandum “deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.”

Bonta took aim at that framing during Monday’s press conference.

“It’s certainly an unnecessary escalation. It stokes the flames. It’s provocative and unnecessary and unhelpful and counterproductive. It is not normal, nor is it acceptable, to have a president who violates the law so frequently,” Bonta said.

And yet the state’s attorney general is not yet convinced that the worsening situation in his state has the workings of a constitutional crisis, a term he said he’s reserving for the moment that Trump ignores a “clear, understandable” order from the Supreme Court.

“We’re not there yet. To me, that hasn’t happened,” Bonta said, adding that his state will continue to duke it out with the administration in the courts. “We will take him to court every time he violates the Constitution and violates the law.”

This case has all the makings of becoming the next to skyrocket to the Supreme Court, as Trump threatens to march soldiers elsewhere on U.S. soil. When Trump was asked what parameters he’s using to determine invoking this type of authority, the president merely said it was up to him.

“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,” Bonta said. “It pulls them away from critical work that needs and requires their immediate attention. If the situation had necessitated support ... Gov. Newsom would have swiftly deployed them.”

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Jose Pagliery is a reporter at NOTUS.