The ruling revealed for the first time some of the internal debate around the deployment. Major General Scott Sherman, a three-decade Army veteran who was in charge of the Guardsmen in Los Angeles, had objected to placing troops in the middle of a historic city park as part of a planned “show of presence,” arguing that they should not be engaged in police-like functions.

Gregory Bovino, a senior Customs and Border Protection official, criticized Sherman for taking that traditional view of the role of the U.S. armed forces and, according to the ruling, questioned his “loyalty to the country.”