Newsom aims to stop Guard deployment

Governor says Trump sending California troops to Oregon is an abuse of power.

- BY DANIEL MILLER AND MELODY GUTIERREZ

DEPLOYMENT of California's Guard to Oregon came after a judge blocked federalization of Oregon's Guard.

(JASON ARMOND Los Angeles Times)

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday that he intends to seek a court order in an attempt to stop President Trump's deployment of California National Guard troops to Oregon.

Calling the president's action a “breathtaking abuse” of power, Newsom said in a statement that 300 California National Guard personnel were being deployed to Portland, a city the president has called “war-ravaged.”

“They are on their way there now,” Newsom said of the National Guard. “This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power.”

Trump's move came a day after a federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the federalization of the state’s National Guard. Constitutional law experts said the deployment of the California National Guard to Oregon without the consent of either state's governor is an obvious effort by the president to sidestep the judge's ruling on Saturday.

“This is a blatant attempt to circumvent Judge [Karin] Immergut’s order,” said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program. “Her decision makes very clear that there is no lawful basis for deploying federalized National Guard troops in Oregon.”

Such an action is without precedent, said Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School.

“I cannot think of a historic analog where we have the president — against the will of local elected officials — sending the federalized National Guard from state A to state B," she said.

Trump, who mobilized the California National Guard amid immigration protests in Los Angeles in June, has pursued the use of the military in cities including Chicago and Washington, sparking outrage among Democratic officials in those jurisdictions.