A hundred and fifty years ago, Congress passed a famous statute generally prohibiting the use of troops on U.S. soil to enforce the law. That statute is called the Posse Comitatus Act, and many are up in arms insisting that President Trump has violated its venerable principle by deploying National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to violent anti-ICE protests.
Late last week, that view received a shot in the arm when Judge Charles Breyer, a federal district judge in California—and brother to former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer—ruled that Trump’s call-up of the National Guard was illegal. His ruling has been stayed pending an emergency appeal hearing this Tuesday.
Was Breyer right? I’ll get to that in a second, but here are two things to know up front.