Bid to Bar Air Guard Mission Rejected

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Thursday rejected an appeal by liberal groups for an order blocking the California Air National Guard from sending three planes and 60 guard members to Central America today.

After listening to arguments by attorneys for Americans for Democratic Action and the National Lawyers Guild, Judge Warren Deering turned down their request for an order that would have required Gov. George Deukmejian to refuse a request by the Air Force to send the California group to fly supply missions in Latin America for two weeks.

The group, from the 146th Tactical Airlift Wing, is scheduled to leave its Van Nuys Airport base this evening for Howard Air Force Base in Panama. For the Guard members, the mission counts as their annual two-week training session.

The lawsuit was the latest action in the debate over the use of the National Guard, from California and other states, in Central America.

Defends State Plans

Deputy Atty. Gen. John Crimmins, defending the state’s plans, accused lawyers for the two groups of bringing suit to protest the Reagan Administration’s Central American policy, not to press “a bonafide lawsuit on any bonafide legal issue.”

Crimmins argued that it would be a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers of the three branches of government, and of judicial precedents up to U.S. Supreme Court rulings, for a court to attempt to block a military order.

The plaintiff’s attorneys argued that without a declaration of war or national emergency, Deukmejian--legally, the peacetime commander of the state reserve troops--has the power to refuse the Defense Department’s request for the Guard unit, as governors of at least five states have done.

Deering offered no explanation for his ruling, other than that he had heard “no showing of any unlawful activity on the part of the governor or abuse of his discretion.”