{"id":14545,"date":"2025-06-09T15:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14545"},"modified":"2025-06-09T15:54:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:54:19","slug":"trump-ignored-newsom-in-putting-the-national-guard-in-la-thats-rare-in-us-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14545","title":{"rendered":"Trump ignored Newsom in putting the National Guard in LA. That\u2019s rare in US history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s exceedingly rare for presidents to call up the National Guard in opposition to a governor\u2019s wishes, as President Trump did in deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by<\/em> Mikhail Zinshteyn<\/em><\/a>, CALMATTERS<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s call-up of 2,000 citizen soldiers from the California National Guard<\/a> against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> has few precedents in U.S. history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump insists the federalized troops are necessary to protect immigration enforcement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Newsom, who traveled to Los Angeles Sunday to oversee the state\u2019s response, has formally asked Trump to return control of the Guard to the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty \u2014 inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they\u2019re actually needed,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a social media post Sunday<\/a>, after formally asking the Trump administration to return control of the National Guard to the state.

In his request, Newsom wrote that local \u201claw enforcement resources are sufficient to maintain order.\u201d He added that there \u201cis currently no need for the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles, and to do so in this unlawful manner and for such a lengthy period is a serious breach of state sovereignty that seems intentionally designed to inflame the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s federalization of the National Guard may still face court challenges, legal experts say, but his Saturday night order is rare<\/a>. It marks <\/a>the first time a president sidestepped local and state officials in calling up state troops since 1965<\/a>, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sought to protect civil rIghts protesters in Alabama.

In 1957, the governor of Arkansas activated the National Guard to block nine Black students from entering Central High School in the state\u2019s capital, Little Rock, in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1954 that segregation was illegal. President Dwight D. Eisenhower took over the Guard<\/a> and brought in U.S. Army troops to ensure the Black students could attend school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in 1962, President John F. Kennedy federalized the National Guard in Mississippi<\/a> and brought in U.S. Army troops<\/a> to quell a riot of segregationists who opposed the enrollment of a Black student at The University of Mississippi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s order through a presidential memo Saturday night came after media reports and social media footage of protesters throwing rocks at a Border Patrol vehicle in Paramount, a city with a large Latino population in Los Angeles County. Immigration enforcement officials were there and in other parts of the Los Angeles area making arrests of individuals they say are in the country without authorization. Trump cited \u201cincidents of violence and disorder\u201d in his message. The soldiers will \u201ctemporarily protect\u201d the immigration enforcement officers, Trump wrote.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told CalMatters in an email that \u201c[i]rresponsible politicians continue to push dangerous and misleading rhetoric that puts communities and law enforcement at risk. Even the Los Angeles Police Departments referred to violent riots yesterday as \u2018peaceful protests.\u2019 Americans can look at the videos and images and see with their own eyes that they are dangerous not \u2018peaceful.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spokesperson added: \u201cWe have arrested a domestic abuser who assaulted someone with a firearm and a child rapist. In defense of these heinous criminals, masked rioters have made it their mission to injure and maim federal law enforcement officials. Make no mistake, rioters committing crimes will be arrested and held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legality of Trump\u2019s LA deployment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Federalizing the National Guard is a \u201csignificant\u201d and \u201cunnecessary\u201d move, especially given that \u201cno local or state authorities have requested such federal assistance,\u201d according to Steve Vladeck<\/a>, a professor of law at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a blog post Saturday night, Vladeck also cautioned that Trump\u2019s move is not an invocation of the Insurrection Act, a seldom-used set of statutes that\u2019s a major escalation of presidential powers that can give the National Guard special enforcement powers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the actual powers Trump cited in his memo, soldiers will just \u201cprovide a form of force protection and other logistical support for ICE personnel,\u201d Vladeck wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, he wonders if this is a strategic move by Trump to eventually invoke the Insurrection Act, which was last used by a president in 1992<\/a> \u2014 also in Los Angeles to quell the unrest following the Rodney King trial. Even then, the state\u2019s governor wanted the extra help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible that this step is meant to both be and look modest so that, if and when it \u201cfails,\u201d the government can invoke its failure as a basis for a more aggressive domestic deployment of troops,\u201d Vladeck wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyle Longley, a professor of history, war and diplomacy at Chapman University in Orange County, said he too believes Trump\u2019s deployment of the National Guard is meant to score political points with his base. \u201cThis is trying to provoke a response. This is trying to play to Fox News, play to the base of Trump, who have tried to portray cities as cesspools of discontent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s more insidious in terms of what I would say, is the threat of trying to bring the Marines forward, because that is a totally different ball game when you\u2019re using U.S. military forces against domestic groups,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post<\/a> that \u201cif violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized \u2014 they are on high alert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House of Representative Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said he doesn\u2019t think sending in the Marines is \u201cheavy-handed,\u201d in an ABC News interview<\/a> Sunday.

Mixing protest and soldiers can lead to tragedy, Longley added, referring to the four students killed by National Guard members after they entered Kent State University in 1970 during anti-war demonstrations. Not all of the killed or injured people<\/a> were protesting.

\u201cEven the L.A. police force have said these have been relatively peaceful demonstrations,\u201d he added. \u201cThese are not people throwing Molotov cocktails. These are not snipers up on tops of roofs<\/a> like they were during the Rodney King rioting and the looting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The general prohibition on military forces acting as police \u201creflects an American tradition that views military interference in civilian government as being inherently dangerous to liberty,\u201d wrote Joseph Nunn<\/a>, a Constitutional scholar, in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another law professor, Chris Mirasola, faulted public officials<\/a> for overstating Trump\u2019s actions in an essay Sunday morning. \u201cThere has been significant mischaracterization of what the president has authorized in the memorandum signed yesterday. Governor Gavin Newsom has criticized, for example, a complete takeover of the California National Guard. This is not provided for in the memo.\u201d

Still, Mirasola wrote in an email that he thinks Trump\u2019s justification for the National Guard was weak. Trump\u2019s \u201cmemo seems to equivocate in whether an insurrection in fact exists,\u201d he wrote. If there\u2019s no insurrection, there\u2019s no need for the National Guard, his essay suggested.

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s deployment of federalized National Guard troops in response to protests is unnecessary, inflammatory, and an abuse of power,\u201d said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wearing a mask is legal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a social media post, Trump also singled out  protesters who wear masks<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Thomas R. Burke, a San Francisco-based lawyer with Davis Wright Tremaine who\u2019s practiced law on free speech issues for about 35 years, said that protesters have a clear First Amendment right to wear masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ability to protest anonymously is quite settled, the use of masks specifically,\u201d Burke said in an interview. He added that Trump\u2019s comment \u201cis part and parcel with wanting to suppress speech before it happens, to make protesters be concerned about getting arrested or detained simply because they\u2019re wearing a mask and keeping their identities.\u201d

Wearing a mask while committing a crime is illegal, Burke said, but even that prohibition has limits.

On the one hand, \u201cif the protest becomes violent, and you\u2019re a violent protester wearing a mask, you\u2019re not going to be able to assert, effectively, a First Amendment defense for your mask,\u201d he said. A 19th century California law also forbids this<\/a>.

But often protesters are arrested for failing to disperse, even if protesters struggle to leave the area quickly enough.

In that situation, \u201cyou\u2019re not going to be able to be arrested just because you\u2019re wearing a mask. I mean, they might arrest you, but it\u2019s a First Amendment violation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mikhail Zinshteyn reports on higher education for CalMatters. His coverage tackles state legislation, financial aid, labor issues, student demands, campus housing and college affordability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s exceedingly rare for presidents to call up the National Guard in opposition to a governor’s wishes, as President Trump did in deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles. by Mikhail Zinshteyn, CALMATTERS President Donald […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14549,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14545\/revisions\/14549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}