California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the Trump administration Monday for deploying hundreds of National Guard members to Los Angeles over the weekend.
The lawsuit seeks a court ruling that President Donald Trump’s move to federalize 2,000 members of the state National Guard on Saturday in response to protests against the administration’s immigration actions without a request from California Gov. Gavin Newsom was "unlawful" and should be rescinded.
Bonta said in a statement that Trump's order “infringes on Governor Newsom’s role as Commander-in-Chief of the California National Guard and violates the state’s sovereign right to control and have available its National Guard in the absence of a lawful invocation of federal power.”
Bonta argued in the lawsuit that the Defense Department did not communicate directly with the governor’s office about any planned activation and deployment of California National Guard members and that it did not seek approval to use the National Guard to protect federal agents and federal property.
Reached for comment Monday night, a Defense Department spokesperson said it's the Pentagon's policy not to comment on pending or ongoing litigation.
The suit went on to say the protests and unrest “pale in comparison” with other incidents, including the federalization of the National Guard in 1992 at the request of California Gov. Pete Wilson during the Rodney King riots.
“At no point in the past three days has there been a rebellion or an insurrection,” the lawsuit says.
At a news conference Monday before he filed the lawsuit, Bonta accused Trump of "trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends."
He told reporters that the law Trump used to activate the guard had been used only once before, when President Richard Nixon used it in 1970 to activate the guard to deliver mail during a postal strike. He also said it’s the first time the guard had been activated without a governor’s consent since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson deployed troops in Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators.
The White House had contended the move was necessary to combat “lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in Los Angeles, referring to clashes and confrontations between federal agents carrying out immigration raids and protesters in recent days.
"We did the right thing," Trump told reporters Monday, adding that the "place would be burning down" if they hadn't. "I’m very happy I got involved. And I think Gavin, in his own way, is probably happy I got involved."
Newsom, a Democrat, had said that there was no need to deploy the National Guard and that Trump took the drastic step out of a desire for a “spectacle.”
He also accused Trump of trying to "manufacture a crisis."
"He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control,” Newsom said Sunday on X, where he also urged protesters to “stay peaceful.”
Tensions between protesters and law enforcement escalated Saturday, with some protesters throwing objects and law enforcement deploying pepper balls and flash-bang devices. Videos also showed looting and a car on fire.
The protests swelled Sunday, with demonstrators shutting down streets and highways, setting more cars on fire and increasing confrontations with law enforcement.
The protests initially began in response to immigration enforcement operations, as the Trump administration has made mass deportations a centerpiece of its domestic policy. In recent days, administration officials have targeted major Democratic cities in their enforcement efforts, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
Trump praised the National Guard on Truth Social for a "job well done" in the early hours of Sunday, before they'd been deployed in the city.
On Monday, he ratcheted up his rhetoric about the protesters on social media, charging that if any protesters spat on National Guard members, "they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before."
"Such disrespect will not be tolerated!" he wrote. On his first day in office, Trump issued roughly 1,500 pardons to people who'd been charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, in which 140 law enforcement officers were injured.
About 300 guard members are in Los Angeles, officials said, where they've been tasked with guarding federal personnel and properties. In addition, about 700 Marines from the Marine Corps base in Twentynine Palms, California, will deploy to Los Angeles to support the National Guard members already in the city, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday.
