Attorney General Gentner Drummond says he is leading a group of attorneys general “to defend President Trump’s activation of the National Guard to keep law and order in Los Angeles.”
In a news release, the gubernatorial hopeful said he filed an amicus brief in the Northern District of California with 19 other attorneys general seeking to block California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s legal push for a temporary stop to the occupation of National Guard troops.
“President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard is not only responsible and constitutional, it is fully necessary to enforce the law and ensure public safety,” Drummond said. “I am thankful the president stepped in to protect innocent citizens from the lawlessness and violence the nation is seeing in the streets of Los Angeles.”
This is the first time a president has federalized the National Guard without a governor’s cooperation since President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Selma, Alabama, to protect civil rights demonstrators in 1965.
Detractors of the move say it’s an unnecessary escalation of a small but already intense situation and a worrying precedent is being set.
Trump has also deployed a contingent of Marines to the city in his push to aggressively reform immigration policy and the role of the executive branch.
According to Drummond’s news release, Iowa and South Carolina also took point on the brief. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Utah are involved.
