Meet the judge who ruled that Trump exceeded his authority federalizing CA National Guard: It is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Breyer’s younger brother

(Article is written in future tense because it is from June, when he was first "assigned.")

"U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, a former Watergate prosecutor, will decide whether Trump had the legal authority to federalize 4,000 California National Guard troops.

By Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein

06/10/2025 02:32 PM EDT

"Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump over the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles is in the hands of a federal judge who is the younger brother of retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

"U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, a former Watergate prosecutor nominated to the bench by Bill Clinton in 1997, was assigned to Newsom’s case Tuesday, a day after California officials sued to reverse Trump’s order.

"California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, citing the presence of his and other state offices in that city as justification for the choice of venue. Breyer is one of 13 judges in that courthouse and was assigned the case through a random process overseen by the court clerk.

"Breyer, who attended Harvard before getting his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate and has served as a judge in the San Francisco-based federal court since.

"Notably, Trump himself nominated Breyer in 2018 for a second term on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/10/california-national-guard-lawsuit-judge-00397032