California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom have filed a lawsuit challenging former President Donald Trump’s recent order to federalize the California National Guard, calling the move an unprecedented and unlawful overreach of presidential authority.

On June 7, President Trump issued a memorandum titled “Department of Defense Security for the Protection of Department of Homeland Security Functions,” authorizing the Department of Defense to call up 2,000 California National Guard troops for federal service for 60 days. This order came in the wake of multiple U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in downtown Los Angeles, which sparked protests of a few hundred to 1,000 people over the weekend.

Despite objections from Governor Newsom and local law enforcement, the Department of Defense began deploying 300 National Guard troops to Los Angeles on Sunday.

By the time the Guard arrived, protests had largely subsided, but tensions reignited soon after the deployment.

Attorney General Bonta criticized the federalization as “unnecessary and counterproductive,” stating, “President Trump’s order calling federalized National Guard troops into Los Angeles – over the objections of the Governor and local law enforcement – is unnecessary and counterproductive. It’s also deeply unfair to the members of the National Guard who are hard at work every day protecting our state, preparing for and responding to emergencies, and training so that, if called, they can fight our nation’s wars,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion. The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. Federalizing the California National Guard is an abuse of the President’s authority under the law – and not one we take lightly. We’re asking a court to put a stop to the unlawful, unprecedented order.”

The lawsuit, filed jointly by Bonta and Newsom, asks the court to rule the President’s and Department of Defense’s orders unlawful on several grounds:

• The federalization deprives California of essential resources and critical emergency responders.
• Federal law (10 U.S.C. § 12406) requires gubernatorial consent for such federalization, which was not sought or granted.
• The order infringes on the Governor’s constitutional role as Commander-in-Chief of the state’s National Guard and violates California’s sovereign rights.

This use of 10 U.S.C. § 12406 is highly unusual. The statute has only been invoked on its own once in modern history, by President Nixon during the 1970 Postal Service Strike, and this is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard without the governor’s request. In 1965, President Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators, but in the current situation, local authorities were managing the protests and had expressly warned that federal intervention could worsen tensions.

Attorney General Bonta and Governor Newsom are seeking an immediate court injunction to halt the federalization order and return control of the National Guard to the state.