California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Trump v. Illinois opposing the Trump Administration’s efforts to stay a lower court’s order that blocked the deployment of federalized National Guard troops in Illinois. On June 7, for the first time in United States’ history, the President invoked 10 U.S.C. § 12406 to federalize a state’s National Guard over the objections of that state’s governor. Since then, it has become clear that the federal government’s actions in Southern California were just the opening salvo in its effort to transform the role of the military in American society. The Trump Administration now presents to the Supreme Court a nearly limitless conception of presidential authority to federalize the National Guard and the activities those troops can engage in. In urging the Supreme Court to deny the federal government’s application, Attorney General Bonta argues that the Trump Administration’s interpretation of the law, if accepted, poses a serious threat to our system of federalism, the separation of powers, and longstanding norms against military intrusion into civilian affairs.  

“The Trump Administration is asking the Supreme Court to grant it unprecedented and unlimited power to deploy the military into American cities — power it has made clear that it fully intends to abuse,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Trump wants an army that serves a King, but in America, in our democracy, our military does not police the people. California has been ground zero for the Trump Administration’s militarization of American streets. In the four months since troops were first deployed to Los Angeles, we’ve seen the President abandon any attempt to justify their continued presence in our state, taking a near limitless view of executive power. I urge the Supreme Court to reject the President’s latest bid to defy our constitutional norms and grab power he does not have.”