University of Kwazulu-Natal

Trump S 2025 Military Deployment To L A Legal Analysis Dynamis Llp

Bonisiwe Shabane
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trump s 2025 military deployment to l a legal analysis dynamis llp

In June 2025, President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of federalized National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles, California, amidst protests against federal immigration enforcement raids and despite the strong objections of... The situation immediately raises profound questions about the scope of presidential authority, the principles of federalism, the specific statutes invoked, and the traditional American aversion to military intervention in civilian matters. The starting point for any discussion of domestic military deployment is the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA). Enacted in 1878, this federal law generally prohibits the use of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force for domestic civilian law enforcement purposes: Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, or the Space...

18 U.S.C. § 1385. The PCA makes it a crime for federal military personnel to perform civilian law enforcement functions unless expressly authorized. The inclusion of criminal penalties underscores the gravity with which Congress views the principle of separating military and civilian spheres. Any deviation requires explicit, affirmative legal authorization, placing the burden of demonstrating legality squarely on those advocating for military deployment. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday questioning both President Trump’s decision to deploy federal troops to Los Angeles and the court’s right to review it, teeing up what is likely to...

Supreme Court. A panel of three judges — two appointed by President Trump, one by President Biden — pressed hard on the administration’s central assertion that the president had nearly unlimited discretion to deploy the military... But they also appeared to cast doubt on last week’s ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that control of the National Guard must immediately return to California authorities. A pause on that decision remains in effect while the judges deliberate, with a decision expected as soon as this week. “The crucial question ... is whether the judges seem inclined to accept Trump’s argument that he alone gets to decide if the statutory requirements for nationalizing the California national guard are met,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the...

The questions at the heart of the case test the limits of presidential authority, which the U.S. Supreme Court has vastly expanded in recent years. In 2025, during Donald Trump's second presidency, federal government forces, primarily National Guard troops, have been deployed in select U.S. cities. Trump has given multiple explanations for the deployments, saying they are officially part of crackdowns on protests, civil unrest, crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration. The actions targeted Democratic Party-led cities and sparked significant controversy, with critics labeling them as abuses of power and potential violations of laws like the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits military involvement in domestic...

Deployments began in Los Angeles in June 2025 and expanded to Washington, D.C., in August 2025, before presidential authorizations were issued to expand to Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon, in September 2025. Federal forces arrived in Memphis in October 2025.[7] Plans were underway for Chicago and potentially other cities like New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Oakland, California.[8][9][10][11] In September 2025, Trump told military leaders to... On September 2, federal courts ruled that the administration had illegally sent troops into Los Angeles in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a development described as potentially complicating Trump's threats for further military... I have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he would use the military to end protests without consent from state governors, actions which his aides had talked him out of during his first term.[5] He... "It is unheard of in this country," one legal expert told ABC News. Remarkable images are emerging of Marines training and National Guardsmen armed with rifles accompanying ICE agents on raids in Los Angeles. It's a scene President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth say can be replicated in any other American city where there are protests against the administration's immigration crackdown. It's also raising a host of legal questions regarding what Trump can and can't do with regards to the military on U.S. soil, and whether he's crossing the line.

A first hearing on some of these issues is set for Thursday as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, challenges the federal deployment and seeks emergency relief. California Highway Patrol officers attempt to control crowds on the 101 Freeway during an anti-ICE protest in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday. Protests erupted after a wave of federal immigration raids began around the city, with National Guard troops deployed despite objections from local officials. Benjamin Hanson/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images hide caption President Donald Trump's order to deploy 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell anti-immigration enforcement protests — without the consent of Gov.

Gavin Newsom — is an extraordinary move, according to experts in national security and presidential powers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched operations in LA last week, stretching into the weekend, arresting more than 100 people. Demonstrators protested the raids, clashing with police in the city and surrounding areas. Law enforcement has responded by shooting nonlethal, but dangerous, rubber bullets and pepper spray at protesters and journalists. It is the first time since 1965 that a president called National Guard troops to respond to civil unrest without a governor's official request for assistance, according to Elizabeth Goitein, the senior director of... "The conditions that would normally be present, and that should be present, for the president to deploy the military are simply not here," she said.

Gabrielle Lazor, PolitiFact Gabrielle Lazor, PolitiFact Amy Sherman, PolitiFact Amy Sherman, PolitiFact This article originally appeared on PolitiFact. As President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom battled over the federal government deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles, the Trump administration also sent in U.S. Marines.

"Well, we're gonna have troops everywhere," Trump told reporters June 8.

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