A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated federal law by using the US military to help carry out law enforcement activities in and around Los Angeles this summer.

US District Judge Charles Breyer concluded that Trump’s use of thousands of federalized California National Guard members and US Marines to provide protection to federal agents during an aggressive immigration crackdown in the Los Angeles area ran afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th Century law that generally prohibits the use of troops for domestic law enforcement purposes.

“The evidence at trial established that Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles. In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act,” Breyer wrote in a 52-page opinion.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration broke the law in its use of the military in Los Angeles. If upheld on appeal, the ruling will stand as a check on President Donald Trump’s use of the military for domestic law enforcement and serve as a broader reminder that Trump being commander-in-chief of the military doesn’t make him a national chief of police.......

His analysis in a 52-page ruling led him to issue an injunction barring the government from:

deploying, ordering, instructing, training, or using the National Guard currently deployed in California, and any military troops heretofore deployed in California, to execute the laws, including but not limited to engaging in arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants, unless and until [government] Defendants satisfy the requirements of a valid constitutional or statutory exception, as defined herein, to the Posse Comitatus Act.

Breyer noted that his injunction only applies in California, not nationally, and that the government doesn’t have to withdraw the 300 guard troops currently stationed in L.A., nor is it barred from using troops consistent with federal law. The judge also said his injunction won’t take effect until noon Friday, Sept. 12, which gives the administration time to appeal.

In related litigation, a federal appeals court panel previously lifted a temporary restraining order that Breyer had issued against the deployment itself.