A federal court has ruled that the Trump Administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act by using federalized California National Guard troops and Marines for civilian law enforcement activities in Los Angeles. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California also issued a permanent injunction barring similar actions in the future, with the order set to take effect on September 12, 2025.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta responded to the decision, stating: “Today’s ruling affirms that President Trump is not King, and the power of the executive is not boundless. For more than two months, the President has engaged in political theater, using National Guard troops and Marines as pawns to further his anti-immigrant agenda. In doing so, he trampled on one of the very basic foundations of our democracy: That our military be apolitical and the activities of troops on U.S. soil be extremely limited to ensure civil liberties and protect against military overreach. I applaud the District Court for firmly rejecting the Trump Administration’s reckless interpretation of the Posse Comitatus Act and rebuking its unprecedented use of military troops for civilian law enforcement in California communities.”
The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits use of federal military personnel for domestic law enforcement except where expressly authorized by Congress. The law was enacted to prevent misuse of military force within U.S. borders—a principle rooted in concerns from colonial times when British forces were used for policing.
During a three-day trial last month, evidence presented by California demonstrated that orders from federal officials directed armed military support at various operations throughout Los Angeles. The court found that these deployments included perimeter security, blockades, and shows of force intended to bolster operations by agencies such as DHS and DEA—at times with numbers equal to or exceeding those of civilian law enforcement agents.
The court concluded: “PCA violations were part of a top-down, systemic effort by Defendants to use military troops to execute various sectors of federal law (the drug laws and the immigration laws at least) across hundreds of miles and over the course of several months—and counting. The instructions to train Task Force 51 on the purported constitutional exception and thereby excuse unlawful military conduct came ‘all the way from the top’ of the Department of Defense.”
A copy of the court’s order is available online.
