Posse Comitatus Act in 1878

The sad images of proud National Guard troops in D.C. picking up trash and lawn maintenance shows that Trump’s authoritarian takeover was not about crime in the nation’s capital.

Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegesth, and the Department of Defense acted illegally when they used the Marines and the National Guard in Los Angeles, California. Judge Breyer noted that Congress was clear when it passed the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878 prohibiting the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law.

“Nevertheless at Defendants’ orders and contrary to Congress’s explicit instruction, federal troops executed the laws.”

Trump had that armed military soldiers set up protective perimeters, set up checkpoints, block traffic, and demonstrated a military presence in LA.

“In short,” he concluded, the “Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act.”