Trial begins over Trump's military deployments for California protests

Lawyers for President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are set to face off Monday to determine whether the president violated a 147-year-old law when he deployed the National Guard to quell protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles – against the wishes of the Democratic governor. In June, as hundreds of people gathered in Los Angeles to protest a string of immigration raids that targeted workplaces and left dozens of people detained or deported, the president federalized and deployed 4,000 National Guard members over the objection of Newsom and local officials, who said the deployment would only cause further chaos.

Trump invoked a rarely used law that allows the president to federalize the National Guard during times of actual or threatened rebellion or invasion, or when regular forces can’t enforce US laws. The president’s lawyers said in a court filing that the duties of the National Guard troops and a handful of Marines also dispatched were narrowly circumscribed: They were dispatched only to protect federal property and personnel, and they didn’t engage in any law enforcement activities.

Newsom filed a lawsuit June 9 against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying they violated the Posse Comitatus Act and the 10th Amendment. Trump’s lawyers say the act, which prevents the use of the military for enforcing laws, doesn’t provide a mechanism for a civil lawsuit.

But Newsom’s lawyers have argued the president illegally made an “unprecedented power grab” – and even violated the Constitution – by overruling local authorities to send in the military.

The president and Hegseth “have overstepped the bounds of law and are intent on going as far as they can to use the military in unprecedented, unlawful ways,” Newsom’s lawyers say in a complaint.

CNN's Boris Sanchez speaks with former deputy Homeland Security Secretary in the first Trump administration Ken Cuccinelli. #CNN #News