California Gov. Gavin Newsom has filed an emergency order asking a court to block President Donald Trump and the Department of Defense from sending Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
The “unlawful deployments” of the National Guard and Marine units, the legal filing alleges, “have already proven to be a deeply inflammatory and unnecessary provocation.
“Federal antagonization, through the presence of soldiers in the streets, has already caused real and irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles, the people who live there, and the State of California,” it continues. “They must be stopped, immediately.”
Following protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids and deportations, Trump activated the National Guard over the weekend. On Monday, he mobilized hundreds of Marines as well, though the Associated Press reported that none of them have been called yet to respond to ongoing demonstrations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that the tactics were part of a new strategy that the Trump administration planned to use across the nation.
“I think we’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland,” he said.
Newsom, who has already sued the administration over the activation of the Guard, has been in a protracted war of words with Trump over the past few days. The pair’s feud culminated Monday when Trump seemingly called for Newsom’s arrest.
“I would do it, if I were Tom,” Trump told reporters, referencing his border czar, Tom Homan. “Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also said Tuesday that Newsom “ought to be tarred and feathered.”
Newsom’s emergency motion marks another inflection point in the increasing tensions between the blue-state governor and national Republicans, who have pointed the finger at each other for the cause of the riots. Trump has heavily criticized Newsom’s handling of the protests and the state writ large as governor.
Newsom responded by saying the Trump administration has created the environment for the protests — a sentiment echoed in Tuesday’s filing.
“Defendants, including President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth have sought to bring military personnel and a ‘warrior culture’ to the streets of cities and towns where Americans work, go to school, and raise their families. Now, they have turned their sights on California with devastating consequences, setting a roadmap to follow across the country,” the document states in its introduction.
The filing links the administration’s actions to the intensification of the protests as well, which swelled in size over the weekend after they began on Friday.
NEW: I just filed an emergency motion to block Trump’s illegal deployment of Marines and National Guard in Los Angeles.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 10, 2025
Trump is turning the U.S. military against American citizens.
The courts must immediately block these illegal actions. pic.twitter.com/ms4JELUk3v
Newsom’s emergency motion alleges that the crowd outside a detention center “doubled in size on June 8 and included protestors apparently angry that the National Guard had been federalized. The National Guard’s presence ‘seemed to only inflame the protestors further.’”
“Plaintiffs are likely to suffer several types of irreparable harm in the absence of temporary relief, but one stands out among the rest: the very high risk of substantial civil unrest as a direct result of Defendants’ inflammatory and confrontational deployment of the military in a large, civilian population center,” the document states.
“Indeed, the presence of soldiers on the streets of Los Angeles, including their actual or perceived support and aid in the execution of ICE duties, has already created significant civil unrest and is likely to result in increased civil unrest in the future.”
One of Newsom’s legal arguments appears to hinge on the notion that the law Trump used to nationalize the Guard applies only in narrow circumstances: “none of which is present,” the filing states.
“To put it bluntly, there is no invasion or rebellion in Los Angeles; there is civil unrest that is no different from episodes that regularly occur in communities throughout the country, and that is capable of being contained by state and local authorities working together. And nothing is stopping the President from enforcing the laws through use of ordinary, civilian mechanisms available to federal officers,” it continues.
Another argument Newsom makes in the filing is that federal law “requires orders to federalize the National Guard to be ‘issued through the governors of the States,’ and here the Governor never issued such an order or gave consent.”
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Nuha Dolby is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.