TRANSCRIPT
United States District Judge Charles Breyer has ruled that President Trump overstepped his bounds in ordering the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles after protests erupted over the immigration crackdown.
It's a move which California's Governor Gavin Newsom had labelled unnecessary, inflammatory and authoritarian.
But it's not immediately clear how that will change the situation on the ground, and if it will stop a further contingent of 700 Marines being deployed in the city before the weekend.
The mostly peaceful protests have been marred by violence, including torched cars and rocks thrown at police officers.
As President Donald Trump spars with California's governor over immigration enforcement, Republicans in Congress called other Democrat governors to the Capitol to question them over policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Facing the House Oversight Committee, Democrat Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts made no secret of his view of the military deployment.
"This is disgraceful. It should not happen in this country. This is wrong. Deploying the military against a civilian population is wrong, and if we don't step up, this will continue. If we don't step up and declare what is right under our Constitution, then other cities, other citizens will meet this same fate."
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has repeated President Trump's pledge to "liberate" Los Angeles.
"The Department of Homeland Security and the officers and the agencies and the departments and the military people that are working on this operation will continue to sustain and increase our operations in this city. We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city."
Moments later she was dramatically interrupted when federal agents dragged a Democratic US senator out of the room as he tried to ask Secretary Noem about the immigration raids that led to protests in California and around the country.
The video showed a Secret Service agent grabbing California Senator Alex Padilla by his jacket and shoving him from the room, then forcing him to the ground and handcuffing him.
Senator Padilla held a press conference shortly afterwards.
"If this is how this administration responds to a Senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to Senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day labourers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country."
California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff took to the floor of the upper chamber to express outrage after Senator Padilla’s forceful removal.
"I saw this happen to my colleague. And I am shocked by how far we have descended in the first 140 days of this administration."
He was joined by others including Democrat Minority Leader senator Chuck Schumer.
"We need a full investigation immediately as to what happened and who did what and what's going to be done to see that this doesn't happen again to Senator Padilla or other American citizens who are seeking their right to redress. It's despicable. It's disgusting. It is so un-American. So un-American."
The LA protests have spread to Boston, Chicago, Seattle and other cities.
Nearly 2,000 organised protests are scheduled for this Saturday, when Mr Trump plans to stage a military parade of massed U-S troops and armoured vehicles in the nation's capital, Washington, to honour the Army's 250th birthday.
Saturday is also Mr Trump's 79th birthday.
