California National Guard personnel stand outside the Edward R. Roybal federal building after their deployment by U.S. President Donald Trump, in response to protests against immigration sweeps, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 8, 2025.
David Ryder | Reuters
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday asked a federal judge to quickly block the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles to quell protests against immigration raids.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta asked the judge to grant a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump’s actions by 1 p.m. PT in order to “prevent immediate and irreparable harm to Plaintiffs.”
Without that fast relief, Trump’s deployment of the military and the National Guard poses “imminent harm to State Sovereignty, deprives the State of vital resources, escalates tensions and promotes (rather than quells) civil unrest,” Bonta told Judge Charles Breyer in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
“Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement later Tuesday.
“Donald Trump is behaving like a tyrant, not a President,” the governor said. “We ask the court to immediately block these unlawful actions.”
Trump earlier Tuesday defended his decision to authorize the deployment of 4,000 federalized members of the California National Guard and about 700 Marines to Los Angeles.
“Look, if we didn’t get involved right now, Los Angeles would be burning just like it was burning a number of months ago, with all the houses that were lost,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“Los Angeles right now would be on fire, and we have it in great shape,” he claimed.
Newsom sued Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon on Monday, arguing that the actions taken by the federal government are stoking more civil unrest.
The lawsuit alleges that Trump broke the law when he federalized the California National Guard without the governor’s consent or input, and that the move was unwarranted.
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