Constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz said Monday that California Governor Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles is unlikely to succeed. The deployment followed riots sparked by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at a Home Depot. Speaking on The Dershow, Dershowitz argued that the Supreme Court would not “second-guess” the president’s authority in such matters. “Whether right or wrong, the president had the authority to make this decision, even without the governor’s consent,” he said. Dershowitz pointed to the visible violence—including fire bombings and attacks on ICE agents—as justification for Trump’s response. “Was it a full-blown insurrection? No,” he said, “but the threats were real.” Trump, citing public safety concerns, ordered an additional 700 Marines to reinforce the National Guard in Los Angeles. A widely circulated video showed a masked individual hurling rocks at ICE vehicles, prompting the FBI to offer a $50,000 reward for information.

Newsom’s lawsuit focuses on preventing the use of troops for immigration enforcement, citing the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which bars military involvement in civilian law enforcement. However, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, also named in the suit, claimed the troops were deployed solely to protect federal property and personnel—not to enforce immigration laws. Dershowitz predicted the case may gain early traction in lower courts but would ultimately fail at the Supreme Court. “When it gets to the Supreme Court,” he said, “they’ll rule the judiciary cannot interfere with the president’s discretionary judgment on national security.”