Newsom, Bonta vow suit over National Guard deployment

By Madeline Shannon
The Center Square

Editor’s note: This story has been updated since its initial publication.

Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed concerns that President Donald Trump is sending federal agents to California, saying that Trump’s actions follow an “absolutely predictable” pattern that has the ultimate aim of suppressing free speech and rigging the election.

“It’s a script that’s been written for centuries. It’s the authoritarian playbook,” Newsom said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Stockton. “You dial it up around election time. You dial it up around November. You do it a few weeks before. You dial it up in more and more cities. You suppress the vote.”

The governor’s remarks came a day after he and California Attorney General Rob Bonta threatened to sue the Trump administration if Trump deploys National Guard troops to San Francisco.

Newsom said any National Guard deployment to San Francisco, which Trump has said in recent days he would do, would be met with an immediate lawsuit.

“We’re a nation of laws and accountability — not a nation that turns a blind eye to abuse of power,” Newsom said in a news release Tuesday. “The notion that the federal government can deploy troops into our cities with no justification grounded in reality, no oversight, no accountability, no respect for state sovereignty — it’s a direct assault on the rule of law.”

Bonta added that the deployment of National Guard troops wouldn’t be in response to a protest, a riot or social unrest, but rather what Bonta characterized as Trump’s effort to use the National Guard as his own personal army.

“This is outrageous, indefensible – and most importantly illegal,” Bonta said in the same press release. “San Francisco may be the President’s latest target, but California is no stranger to the President’s political games and unconstitutional tactics. We’re ready to go to court immediately if the President follows through on this latest illegal plan.”

Trump previously invoked a little-used federal law in June to federalize part of California’s National Guard, using 4,000 members of the state’s National Guard in a civilian law enforcement role in Los Angeles and other communities in Southern California following immigration-related protests and riots.

The announcement comes just two days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a ruling lifting a temporary restraining order keeping National Guard troops out of the city of Portland, Ore. The 9th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over the entire West Coast, has courthouses in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Pasadena.

“President Trump’s September 28 deployment falls within the history and tradition of the early Militia Acts,” read the ruling. “Individuals within a group of about 200 people have engaged in violent activity in opposition to a single set of laws that carry out federal immigration enforcement.”

The ruling, which was reported on previously by The Center Square, went on to state that protesters have assaulted federal officers in the city of Portland instead of voting for their desired changes.

“As the Secretary said on Monday, DHS is targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens—including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists—in cities such as Portland, Chicago, Memphis and San Francisco,” read a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. “As it does every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce the laws of our nation.”

San Francisco and Los Angeles members of the California Senate and Assembly were unavailable to talk to The Center Square Wednesday afternoon. Similarly, city and county officials in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the National Guard and experts at the Project on Government Oversight were unavailable for comment.