Service secretaries and retired four-star admirals and generals file amicus brief on Los Angeles military deployment

A flag on the uniform of a member of the National Guard.

Last night, on behalf of the following service secretaries and retired four-star admirals and generals, Protect Democracy submitted to the Northern District of California an amicus brief highlighting the critical national security risks arising from domestic deployment of U.S. military forces in California:

  • Admiral Steve Abbot, United States Navy (Retired)
  • Admiral Thad Allen, United States Coast Guard (Retired)
  • Former Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera
  • General Carlton W. Fulford, Jr., United States Marine Corps (Retired)
  • General Michael Hayden, United States Air Force (Retired)
  • Admiral Samuel Jones Locklear, III, United States Navy (Retired)
  • Former Secretary of the Navy Sean O’Keefe 
  • Admiral Bill Owens, United States Navy (Retired)

These retired officials urge Judge Charles Breyer to carefully weigh the harms that improper deployment of the U.S. military in the context of domestic law enforcement poses to national security, military readiness, and disaster response.

They also highlight the risks the ongoing deployments in California pose to civ-mil relations, especially in light of objections from state and local leaders. Not only do these deployments threaten the safety, well-being, and morale of our service members, they could inadvertently paint the troops in an antagonistic light and jeopardize the apolitical status of the U.S. military, a bedrock American principle. As the brief explains:

“Deployment under these circumstances poses multiple risks to the core mission of the National Guard and the Marines, and to the well-being of the troops. First, deploying military personnel in the context of domestic law enforcement diverts them from their primary mission, which is national security and disaster response, at the expense of local, state, and national safety. Second, National Guard personnel and active duty Marines are not trained or qualified to conduct domestic law enforcement operations, which poses a danger to the safety of both the troops and the public. Third, the use of federal military personnel in the context of law enforcement operations should be a last resort to avoid the politicization of the military, which inevitably erodes public trust, impacts recruitment, and undermines troop morale.”

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