UPDATE, 2:09 PM: While Donald Trump is at Fort Bragg, NC talking tough to Army troops right now and tensions in downtown L.A. between anti-ICE protestors and armed authorities are rising with rubber bullets being fired, POTUS’ lawyers have shut down Gavin Newsom‘s effort to block the federalizing of the National Guard and the deployment of the U.S. Marines – at least for now.
“Plaintiffs’ motion is legally meritless,” declares a Tuesday afternoon court filing (read it here) from the Trump adminustration to stop the California Governor’s motion for a temporary restraining order over the nearly 5,000 troops actually on the ground today in L.A. “It seeks an extraordinary, unprecedented, and dangerous court order. If entered, Plaintiffs’ proposed order would jeopardize the safety of Department of Homeland Security personnel and interfere with the Federal Government’s ability to carry out operations.”
With that argument on what POTUS’ advocates terms “a subject of grave importance that implicates the separation of powers,” DOJ lawyers representing Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth successfully asked U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to push Newsom’s deadline of 1 p.m. PT today for a TRO ruling.
In a brief order posted Tuesday afternoon (read it here)Breyer agreed with the suggested timeline of Trump filing. The Bill Clinton-appointed judge wrote: ‘The opposition shall be due by 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Plaintiffs may file a response to that opposition by 9:00 A.M. on Thursday, June 12, 2025. The Court will hold a hearing on Plaintiffs’ motion in open court at 1:30 P.M. on Thursday, June 12, 2025.”
There has been no response yet from Gov. Newsom on the judge’s ruling.
In downtown L.A., after vandalism and looting Monday night, troops are expanding the perimeter around federal buildings and pushing back protesters. On this fifth day of disturbances following harsh and wide-spread ICE raids and detentions, the aim of the LAPD is to open up streets so military convoys can access the area. In that move, so-called non-lethal rubber bullets have been fired in the area, and gas masks distributed among those in service.
The primary stated focus of the 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines on site in L.A. is to protect the federal buildings in the Civic Center area of the nation’s second largest city. Moving civilians and media out of the way, police have issued a dispersal order in the blocks around the federal buildings. Located at 300 N. Los Angeles St, the USCIS offices and other agencies will be closed for the rest of the week, sources tell us.
PREVIOUSLY, 11:32 AM: California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that the state is seeking a temporary restraining order to block President Donald Trump from dispatching troops to patrol Los Angeles.
“Trump is turning the U.S. military against American citizens,” Newsom wrote on X. “The courts must immediately block these illegal actions.”
Read Newsom’s motion about Trump troop deployment here.
In the motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Newsom and state officials argued that “they seek to preserve (in part) the status quo by temporarily enjoining Defendants from ordering or deploying the active- duty members of the military and federalized National Guard soldiers to patrol communities or otherwise engage in general law enforcement activities beyond the immediate vicinity of federal buildings or other federal real property.”
They argued that the “use of the military and the federalized National Guard deprives the State of vital resources, escalates tensions and promotes (rather than quells) civil unrest. By contrast, the public interest is served if the Court enjoins Defendants from further militarizing California’s communities to allow State and local law enforcement to fulfill their duties to enforce State law. Moreover, a preliminary injunction will not harm Defendants: the Department of Homeland Security can continue to enforce immigration law and the DOD Defendants will merely be ordered to comply with the PCA and statutes governing the federalization of the National Guard.”
Newsom filed suit against Trump and the administration on Monday, arguing that the president overstepped his authority when he dispatched National Guard troops to the region to respond to protests of ICE immigration raids. The governor said the president violated the law by not consulting with him first before the deployment.
