District Judge Charles Breyer did not grant a request from California officials Tuesday to immediately block President Donald Trump‘s use of troops to quell violence in Los Angeles, but Breyer did set a hearing to consider the motion.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and California Attorney General Rob Bonta asked Breyer earlier in the day to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the president’s use of the National Guard and Marines to act as law enforcement in Los Angeles immediately, without a formal response from the Trump administration. The California officials had asked for a response by 4 p.m. Eastern, while the Justice Department asked for 24 hours to issue a response to the motion.
In a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California just before 5 p.m., Breyer granted the Justice Department’s request for time to respond to the California officials’ motion for a temporary restraining order. The judge’s order set a hearing for 4:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday in his San Francisco courtroom and issued a schedule for each side to file briefings on their positions to the court.
Breyer gave the Justice Department until 2 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday to file its opposition to the motion and until noon Thursday for the Golden State officials to respond to the DOJ’s opposition.
The scheduling order means the Trump administration may continue to use the National Guard and Marines to quell violence, which has emerged in Los Angeles in recent days amid protests against immigration raids, until the hearing.
After protests turned violent against federal immigration officers conducting raids, Trump ordered the National Guard to Los Angeles over the weekend, the first time it was deployed without a governor’s consent since 1965. He sent Marines to the city on Monday for additional support in stopping the violence.
Newsom and Bonta claimed in their request for the temporary restraining order that Trump’s actions create “imminent harm to State Sovereignty, deprives the State of vital resources, escalates tensions and promotes (rather than quells) civil unrest.”
Justice Department officials said in a notice to the court filed after state officials asked for the emergency pause that the request from Newsom and Bonta was “highly unusual and indeed non-justiciable under constitutional principles.”
NEWSOM ASKS COURT FOR EMERGENCY ORDER TO BLOCK TROOPS IN LA
The request for an order temporarily blocking Trump’s usage of troops comes in a lawsuit California filed against the president on Monday, claiming his actions violate the 10th Amendment and federal law.
Trump defended his actions in the Oval Office earlier Tuesday, saying, “If we didn’t get involved, right now, Los Angeles would be burning.” He also said the National Guard would remain deployed in the city “until there’s no danger.”