Federal judge tears into Trump on LA -- and warns the rest of us

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Federal judge tears into Trump on LA — and warns the rest of us
Like Paul Revere before him, Judge Charles Breyer has raised the alarm about what's coming

By Austin Sarat
Published September 4, 2025 6:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) As almost every school child in this country once learned, Paul Revere, who was employed by the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety as “an express rider to carry news, messages, and copies of important documents as far away as New York and Philadelphia,” played a key role in the American Revolution.

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On Tuesday, 250 years after that ride, Judge Charles Breyer of the Federal District Court in San Francisco raised a similar ruckus without ever leaving the bench. In a 50-page opinion finding President Donald Trump’s use of the military in Los Angeles illegal, Breyer offered a master class in judicial craftsmanship. And he pulled no punches in alerting the nation to the danger that awaits us.

He did not let the niceties of legal argument get in his way. Breyer left no stone unturned in detailing the president’s lawless deployment of troops and his plan to turn the military into a national police force answerable only to him. But he also took the unusual step of criticizing a ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, to which he nominally reports, for its dangerous acquiescence in the president’s authoritarian agenda. This bold, courageous judging is precisely what is called for in the present moment.

Breyer sounded the alarm by quoting Democratic Rep. William Kimmel of Maryland, an early proponent of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military in domestic law enforcement. While Breyer’s jurisdiction only extends to L.A., he borrowed from Kimmel and wrote, “‘If this may be done in one district may it not be done in all the districts? If so, and the interest of a President demands, may he not use this power for his own purposes?’” ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/09/04/federal-judge-tears-into-trump-on-la-and-warns-the-rest-of-us/