Judge ‘Troubled By’ Trump Admin’s Lack of Limits for Domestic Troop Deployments

Senior District Judge Charles R. Breyer expressed concern such deployments could quickly become a “national police force.”

Troops on deployment in Los Angeles
Caylo Seals/Sipa USA via AP

A federal judge in California appeared poised to rule against the Trump administration over its troop deployment in Los Angeles to quell anti-deportation protests, expressing concern such deployments could quickly become a “national police force.”

“Again, I go back to the thing I’m really troubled by: What limiting factors are there to this use of force?” Senior District Judge Charles R. Breyer asked prosecutors in the final moments of a three-day bench trial in San Francisco.

“What was the threat today? What was the threat yesterday?” he asked. “It’s the absence of any limits to any national police force, that’s what I’m sitting here trying to figure out.”