In a court ruling posted on Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled that the National Guard soldiers must leave Los Angeles. But his comments on the ruling include a sharp warning.
Ryan Goodman, a legal scholar and editor-in-chief of JustSecurity.org, highlighted a key excerpt on page 10:
"Indeed, at the motion hearing, Defendants confirmed their position that, after an initial federalization, all extensions of federalization orders are utterly unreviewable, forever. That is shocking. Adopting Defendants’ interpretation of Section 12406 would permit a president to create a perpetual police force comprised of state troops, so long as they were first federalized lawfully. Such a scenario would validate the Founders’ 'widespread fear [of] a national standing Army,' which they believed 'posed an intolerable threat to individual liberty and to the sovereignty of the separate States,'" the judge wrote.
Goodman said that the case has "national implications."
The Atlantic's Quinta Jurecic called it a "drops mic" ruling.
Sorting through the ruling, legal analyst Joyce Vance also highlighted key points in the judge's decision.