U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled Tuesday that President Trump broke the law when he ordered National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June to deal with violent protests.
Breyer, an appointee of former President Clinton, said Trump's move violated a law from 1878 that bars federal troops from participating in law enforcement.
"This was intentional—Defendants instigated a months-long deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles for the purpose of establishing a military presence there and enforcing federal law," Breyer wrote. "Such conduct is a serious violation of the Posse Comitatus Act."
The administration is expected to appeal, although most of the troops are no longer deployed in Los Angeles. An appeals court blocked a previous order from Breyer that found Trump broke the law by deploying the National Guard and ordering him to hand back control to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
This comes as Trump's emergency order to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C., is set to expire later this month.
On Monday, Trump declared the nation's capital a "crime free zone," while pushing for other Democratic-run cities to work with his administration to address crime.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump praised D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), saying she "has become very popular because she worked with me and my great people in bringing CRIME down to virtually NOTHING in D.C."
Bowser, who met with Trump last week, has said that violent crime and carjackings have plunged since the federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department and the deployment of National Guard troops.
The Trump administration is eyeing other major cities as it considers expanding its deployment of National Guard troops.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said over the weekend that her department plans to "add more resources" to its operations in Chicago.
Trump warned Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) that he'd intervene if crime in Chicago persists at current levels. Fifty-eight people were shot in Chicago over Labor Day weekend, with eight of them dying.
"Pritzker is losing ten people a week, every weekend he's losing 10 people with 30, 40 or 50 people shot, it's unbelieveable," Trump said Tuesday on "The Scott Jennings Radio Show."
"We have cities where we have many murders every week because we have week liberal laws where they've allowed this to happen," he added. "So we're stopping it. Chicago's a mess and we have a governor who doesn't have a clue...and the mayor is worse than him."
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) signed an executive order recently detailing how the he'd respond to the deployment of troops.
"The City of Chicago will do everything in our power to defend our democracy and protect our communities," Johnson said in a statement. "With this executive order, we send a resounding message to the federal government: we do not need nor want an unconstitutional and illegal military occupation of our city."
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