Federal judge refuses to block Trump's LA National Guard deployment on Newsom's timeframe

A federal judge on Tuesday night declined California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for an immediate temporary restraining order to restrict President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to quell ongoing anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) riots in Los Angeles. 

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, declined to intervene by 1 p.m. PDT on Tuesday and instead set a hearing to consider California’s motion for a temporary restraining order on Thursday. 

The judge, who is the brother of retired liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, said the federal government could submit its arguments by 11 a.m. PDT Wednesday. He gave California until 9 a.m. Thursday to submit a response to the court.

Breyer, a former Watergate prosecutor, is presiding over the lawsuit filed by Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, challenging Trump’s federalization of 4,000 National Guard troops and deployment of 700 Marines to Los Angeles. 

RODNEY KING RIOTS OFFICER SAYS LA MAYOR ACTED ‘TOO LATE’ AS ANTI-ICE VIOLENCE ENGULFS CITY

Demonstrators confront Los Angeles Police Department personnel in riot gear in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2025.  (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Newsom has traded public wars of words with Trump administration officials, accusing the president of having "commandeered" 2,000 of the state’s National Guard members "illegally, for no reason" without consulting with California’s law enforcement leaders. The Trump administration, meanwhile, said its ICE operations are aiming to get "criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, gangbangers, drug dealers, human traffickers, and domestic abusers off the streets." 

"The INCOMPETENT Governor of California was unable to provide protection in a timely manner when our Ice Officers, GREAT Patriots they are, were attacked by an out of control mob of agitators, troublemakers, and/or insurrectionists," Trump wrote on TRUTH Social on Wednesday morning. "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" 

"If our troops didn’t go into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now, just like so much of their housing burned to the ground. The great people of Los Angeles are very lucky that I made the decision to go in and help!!!"

Demonstrations against the ICE raids in Los Angeles have escalated into violent rioting and looting, and buildings have been tagged with anti-American messaging. 

"Instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records and people with final deportation orders, a strategy that both parties have long supported, this administration is pushing mass deportations, indiscriminately targeting hardworking immigrant families regardless of their roots or risk," Newsom said in one of a series of video statements. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an address on Tuesday, June 10, 2025.  (Office of California Governor via AP)

The governor said he's sought an emergency court order against the use of "the American military to engage in law enforcement activities across Los Angeles." 

NEWSOM SAYS LOS ANGELES RIOTERS WILL BE PROSECUTED, SLAMS TRUMP FOR 'TRAUMATIZING OUR COMMUNITIES'

"If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe," Newsom said. 

Newsom argued Trump’s intervention escalated the Los Angeles rioting, but Vice President JD Vance pushed back on Tuesday. 

The Democratic governor claimed that California "didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved," but Vance asserted it was Newsom's policies that "allowed Los Angeles to turn into a war zone." 

A man adds debris to a fire  as Border Patrol personnel in riot gear and gas masks stand guard outside a park in Paramount, Calif., on Saturday, June 7, 2025.  (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

"Newsom and his stooge Karen Bass fomented and encouraged the riots, because their entire political movement exists for one purpose: to promote mass migration into our country," Vance wrote on X, blaming the governor and the mayor of Los Angeles. "It is their reason for being. Democratic leadership has no solution for the economy, for prosperity, or for security. They use their power when they're in the majority to import millions of illegal immigrants and when they're in opposition they do everything possible to prevent deportations." 

The vice president said Medicaid was extended to all illegal immigrants in 2024 under Newsom’s leadership, meaning that "he elected to take healthcare from impoverished and disabled Californians and give it to illegal aliens."

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"And now, everything is President Trump's fault? Give me a break," Vance said. "If you want to know why illegal aliens flocked to your state, stop accusing Donald Trump. Look in the mirror. If you want to know why border patrol fear for their lives over enforcing the law, look in the mirror. It was your policies that encouraged mass migration into California. Your policies that protected those migrants from common sense law enforcement." 

"You sure as hell had a problem before President Trump came along. The problem is YOU," Vance said.