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oleaginous California Governor Gavin Newsom took time out from podcasting to ask a federal judge for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the President of the United States.
President Trump, the toothy state chief executive claimed, might be able to federalize the National Guard and send Marines into a city in his state, but he’d best not take it into his head that they could take up law enforcement duties, like accompanying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on any of their raids. Newsom wanted a TRO from the court by 1 p.m. to preclude Trump from sending his federal military hounds out.
The judge didn’t see eye to eye on the governor’s rush.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking a federal judge for a restraining order that blocks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from ordering National Guard troops and Marines to support immigration raids in Los Angeles.
“They must be stopped, immediately,” attorneys for the state wrote in a filing Tuesday. The request, submitted around 11 a.m. local time Tuesday, urged U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to act within two hours.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Breyer indicated he would not act on the state’s timeline. Instead, he gave the Trump administration 24 hours it had sought to respond, and he set a hearing on the matter for Thursday afternoon.
The state’s urgent plea came as Newsom and other California officials continued to assail Trump’s order to “federalize” 4,000 members of the state’s National Guard for a mission to protect federal immigration facilities and personnel amid street protests. The state sued Monday to block that effort as well as Hegseth’s subsequent deployment of 700 Marines to assist the National Guard effort.
The restraining order request, however, is focused explicitly on a growing expectation among California officials that those troops will soon be sent on arrest missions alongside agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement — raising the likelihood of direct confrontations with L.A. residents.
Judge Breyer (brother of the SCOTUS justice) was reasonable enough to grant the Trump administration 24 hours to put a response to the filing together. Then he scheduled a hearing on both sides today.
Also yesterday, eight former military service secretaries, retired admirals, and generals filed an amicus brief with the court for the state. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I didn’t see Milley’s name on it, but I figure he’s trying to keep his pension at the level it is right now.
What a sterling lineup.
Admiral Steve Abbot, Admiral Thad Allen, Former Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, General Walton W. Fulford, Jr., General Michael Hayden, Admiral Samuel Jones Locklear, III, Former Secretary of the Navy Sean O’Keefe, and Admiral Bill Owens respectfully move for leave to appear as amici curiae and to file the proposed brief, attached hereto.
