Attorney General Bonta Secures Court Ruling Finding that Trump’s Use of Military Troops Violated Posse Comitatus Act

OAKLAND - California Attorney General Rob Bonta today responded to a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California 1) finding that the Trump Administration's use of federalized California National Guard troops and Marines for civilian law enforcement in Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act and 2) permanently enjoining the Trump Administration from engaging in the same or similar activity in the future. This includes, but is not limited to, engaging in arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants. The District Court's order is stayed until September 12, 2025, at 12pm.

"Today's ruling affirms that President Trump is not King, and the power of the executive is not boundless," said Attorney General Bonta. "For more than two months, the President has engaged in political theater, using National Guard troops and Marines as pawns to further his anti-immigrant agenda. In doing so, he trampled on one of the very basic foundations of our democracy: That our military be apolitical and the activities of troops on U.S. soil be extremely limited to ensure civil liberties and protect against military overreach. I applaud the District Court for firmly rejecting the Trump Administration's reckless interpretation of the Posse Comitatus Act and rebuking its unprecedented use of military troops for civilian law enforcement in California communities."

The Posse Comitatus Act is a law that Congress passed making it illegal to use the military for civilian law enforcement. The Act has deep roots in American tradition, going back to the founding of our country, when the British King used his military to police the Colonies. Over the course of a three-day trial in August 2025, California showed and the District Court today affirmed that the Trump Administration, in its orders to the federalized California National Guard and Marines, violated the Posse Comitatus Act, finding that:

• The Trump Administration is making direct, active use of military personnel to execute the law, including through the provision of armed perimeter support and blockades at numerous operations.
• The Trump Administration's use of the military to "bolster DHS and DEA operations and shows of force exercises regulatory, proscriptive, and compulsory power on the surrounding public, and [the military's] participation in operations in numbers that match or outnumber law enforcement agents pervade the activities of those civilian agents."
• "PCA violations were part of a top-down, systemic effort by Defendants to use military troops to execute various sectors of federal law (the drug laws and the immigration laws at least) across hundreds of miles and over the course of several months-and counting. The instructions to train Task Force 51 on the purported constitutional exception and thereby excuse unlawful military conduct came "all the way from the top" of the Department of Defense."

A copy of the court's order is available here.