The Brief

With just two weeks remaining until the presidential election, former President Donald Trump has used his most recent appearances on podcast and cable interviews to escalate attacks on fellow Americans whom he calls “the enemy from within.”

In one recent interview, Trump said that if “radical left lunatics” disrupt the election, “it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

That statement, on Fox News, was not the first time Trump has expressed support for using government force against domestic political rivals. Since 2022, when he began preparing for the presidential campaign, Trump has issued more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents, NPR has found.

A review of Trump’s rally speeches, press conferences, interviews and social media posts shows that the former president has repeatedly indicated that he would use federal law enforcement as part of a campaign to exact “retribution.”

Vice President Kamala Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted,” Trump said at a rally last month.

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said last year.

“ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON,” reads one post Trump reposted on his social media site, Truth Social, regarding the former Republican congresswoman. “RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS.”

Journalists who decline to identify the sources of leaked information would also face imprisonment, Trump said.

“If the reporter doesn't want to tell you, it's ‘bye-bye,’ the reporter goes to jail,” Trump said in 2022. He appeared to suggest that the reporter could also face sexual assault while in custody.

Trump and his allies have either downplayed these threats, or said that these actions would be justified, in part, because of the four criminal prosecutions brought against Trump since he left office. In one of those cases, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts in connection with hush money he paid to keep an alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels secret. He is appealing that verdict.

When right-wing radio host Glenn Beck asked Trump if he would lock up his opponents in a second term, Trump responded, “The answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us.”

Legal experts said that there are few guardrails preventing Trump from pursuing his plans to prosecute opponents and noted that Trump pressured the Department of Justice to investigate rivals during his first term. In about a dozen cases, the Justice Department followed through and initiated investigations, according to one analysis.

If Trump follows through on his stated plans in a second term, these experts said, his actions could endanger Americans’ civil liberties and cause a chilling effect on criticism of the president. The threats he’s made have already led some of his targets to prepare for the worst by saving money and considering whether to leave the country if Trump wins the election.

“This is how autocrats cement their permanent grip on power,” said Ian Bassin, the executive director of the nonprofit group Protect Democracy, which advocates for protections against authoritarianism.

Many of Trump’s threats relate to his persistent false claims about election fraud and the lie that he won the 2020 election.

“START ARRESTING THE POLL WORKERS AND WATCH HOW FAST THEY TELL YOU WHO TOLD THEM TO CHEAT,” reads a message Trump reposted on social media in 2023.

He has also repeatedly targeted the prosecutors, judges and even courtroom staff connected to the prosecutions against him for alleged election interference, improperly holding classified documents and business fraud.

Attorney General Letitia James sits in the courtroom during the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump at the New York Supreme Court on Jan. 11 in New York City.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron “should be arrested and punished accordingly,” Trump said at a rally in January. James successfully brought a civil fraud case against Trump, which Engoron presided over. Trump is appealing the judgment against him. He also reposted a message attacking a member of the Georgia grand jury that indicted him.

Among the other targets of Trump’s threats are former President Barack Obama (“RETRUTH IF YOU WANT PUBLIC MILITARY TRIBUNALS”), members of the U.S. Capitol Police who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot (“The cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed”), members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee in Congress (“They should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!”), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (“We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison”), people who criticize the Supreme Court (“These people should be put in jail, the way they talk about our judges and our justices”) and protesters who burn the American flag (“You should get a one-year jail sentence if you desecrate the American flag”).

In one instance, Trump suggested that Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his administration, could face execution for calling officials in China to try and defuse tensions in the chaotic aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.

“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Milley, who retired in 2023, has since told journalist Bob Woodward that Trump is “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”

In addition to using the powers under criminal law, Trump has also promised to take greater control of agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcast television and radio, including NPR’s network of member stations.

After his presidential debate against Harris on ABC News, Trump called for the FCC to revoke ABC’s broadcast license, due to his perception of the moderators’ bias. He also called for an investigation of CBS News for campaign finance violations after it aired an interview with Vice President Harris. He’s previously floated pulling the license for NBC, as well, over criticisms of its news coverage.

“I absolutely think he will follow up on those threats,” said Stephanie Grisham, who worked for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and served as his White House press secretary. Grisham resigned in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has since become a vocal critic of her former boss.

“I just know that once he's in office with no guardrails, no reason to worry about reelection, and only the most fervent, loyal people surrounding him,” Grisham said, “he will absolutely make sure his enemies pay for what he perceives to be their crimes.”

John Bolton, who served as national security adviser in the Trump White House, said at an event earlier this year that he believed Trump would use the Department of Justice to enact a “retribution presidency.”

In response to NPR’s reporting, the Republican National Committee issued a statement.

“Kamala Harris is the threat to democracy,” said RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly. “She and Joe Biden weaponized our justice system in order to sway an election.”

Trump’s claims of a “witch hunt”

Amid this flood of threats against his opponents, Trump has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department and subjecting him to “political persecution” and a “witch hunt.”

Judges presiding over Trump’s criminal cases have rejected those arguments.

Biden did state publicly that subjects of the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s investigation should face prosecution for defying subpoenas. He later said that comment was “inappropriate.” But there’s no evidence that Biden has directed the federal cases against Trump. Those cases are being led by special counsel Jack Smith.

During Biden’s presidency, the Justice Department has also brought prosecutions against several high-profile Democrats, including former New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez and New York Mayor Eric Adams, as well as the president’s son, Hunter Biden.

Vice President Harris has generally avoided commenting on Trump’s federal criminal cases. When supporters at recent campaign rallies started chanting “lock him up,” she told the crowd, “We’re gonna let the courts handle that.”

Could Trump actually order prosecutions of his enemies?

After the widespread abuses of presidential power by Richard Nixon, subsequent administrations generally sought to give the Department of Justice more independence from the White House, in part to insulate the agency from electoral politics.

But legal experts and former government officials said those rules and norms can be overturned or ignored.

“There are not really legal restrictions or even structural restrictions that would stop the president, if he were to appoint loyalists to be the lead prosecutors in all 93 jurisdictions around the country, from simply directing them to go and investigate his perceived opponents,” said Bassin, who also served as associate White House counsel in the Obama administration. “If he appointed a loyal director of the FBI, he would be able to make life pretty miserable for the people he is targeting.”

Trump has said he will appoint the “most ferocious legal warriors against crime and Communist corruption that this country has ever seen.”

Trump’s allies have also promised to weaken or even end the Justice Department’s independence from the White House if he returns to office, which would give Trump and his political appointees greater ability to direct the federal prosecutions.

“The president has the authority under the Constitution to conduct law enforcement,” Russ Vought, a former Trump administration official and a leader of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint, told NPR last year. Vought added that “I think you can absolutely trust Donald Trump” not to use the Justice Department for partisan purposes.

The Supreme Court also recently removed one potential guardrail preventing political prosecutions in its ruling on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity.

“One of the most remarkable lines in that Supreme Court opinion is that a sitting president could order their Justice Department to engage in a ‘sham’ investigation,” said Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University. “So a president would not have to fear criminal accountability for ordering a sham investigation of their perceived enemies.”

One final check against political prosecutions is the judicial branch. Judges can refuse to authorize search and arrest warrants. If an investigation leads to an actual prosecution, judges can also dismiss charges and juries can acquit defendants. But the process alone can do significant damage to a target’s reputation and finances, regardless of the final outcome. And both Trump and running mate JD Vance have suggested they might ignore the judiciary’s decisions.

Trump posted on Truth Social that “massive fraud” in the 2020 election justified “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” In a 2021 interview, Vance said Trump should ignore court rulings if they constrain the administration’s ability to replace career officials with political loyalists.

“Much of this depends upon the character of the individual in the White House and the character of those surrounding them,” said Goodman, “because there's so many levers of power that they can use.”

Trump’s actions in his first term

Trump’s actions in his first term

Trump made the prosecution of Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival in the 2016 election, a centerpiece of his first presidential campaign. “Lock her up” became a perennial call-and-response between Trump and his supporters at rallies.

And while the Justice Department under Trump did not ultimately charge Clinton, there’s substantial evidence that his pressure on prosecutors did have an impact in some cases.

“President Trump treated the Department of Justice like his own personal law firm, and he put people in charge there who did his bidding,” said Geoffrey Berman, who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York during the Trump administration, in a 2022 interview with WHYY’s Fresh Air. “The Justice Department targeted political enemies of the president and assisted political allies of the president.”

One of Trump’s most frequent targets in his first term was Andrew McCabe, a longtime FBI official who became the bureau’s acting director when Trump fired James Comey in 2017.

Andrew McCabe, then-acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 11, 2017.

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While in office, Trump attempted to “purge” the FBI of people he perceived as disloyal, McCabe said in an interview.

Trump repeatedly attacked McCabe, because he was in the leadership of the FBI during the investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election and because he perceived McCabe as a partisan enemy. McCabe considered himself a moderate Republican, but Trump seized on the fact that McCabe’s wife had run unsuccessfully for the Virginia state Senate in 2015 as a Democrat.

Trump publicly pressured the department to fire McCabe before he would be eligible to receive retirement benefits, writing on Twitter, “FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!”

“It was clear to me, he was basically saying, ‘I'm going to do whatever I can to fire this guy before he can retire,’” McCabe said.

Department of Justice leaders demoted and then fired McCabe just hours before that deadline.

“Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI,” Trump posted. “A great day for Democracy.”

Internal investigators at the Justice Department said that McCabe “lacked candor” about his contacts with journalists — an allegation McCabe denies — and federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into McCabe that dragged on for nearly two years.

McCabe said he was with his wife and two children when the news of the criminal investigation leaked.

“It was just an incredibly sad moment and really scary for them, because it was the first time that I think they had ever considered that what had been political nonsense might actually cost me my liberty,” McCabe said. “And it's also humiliating. It's embarrassing.”

Federal Judge Reggie Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, questioned prosecutors over their handling of the case and Trump’s apparent influence over it.

“I don't think people like the fact that you got somebody at the top basically trying to dictate whether somebody should be prosecuted,” Walton said. “I just think it's a banana republic when we go down that road.”

Prosecutors ultimately dropped the case without bringing charges.

McCabe sued the Department of Justice over his firing. After Trump left office, he received a settlement that restored his back pay, retirement benefits and rank.

McCabe was not the only target, according to an analysis co-written by Goodman. He found 11 other cases in which Trump pushed the Justice Department to investigate his rivals.

“There is an established track record of Trump having done this before,” said Goodman of NYU. “It's not pure rhetoric.”

In one instance described in the Mueller report and cited by Goodman, Trump urged then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prosecute Hillary Clinton. (Trump also urged prosecution publicly on Twitter.) Federal prosecutors in Utah later opened an investigation into Clinton and the Clinton Foundation without bringing charges. Hillary Clinton remained one of Trump’s most frequent targets even after he left office. Last year, he reposted a video with calls to “lock her up” for alleged treason.

The Jan. 6 Select Committee in Congress presented additional evidence of Trump putting pressure on prosecutors to say they found widespread fraud in the 2020 election, despite a lack of evidence.

Preparing for the worst

Preparing for the worst

Trump continues to threaten McCabe.

Steve Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist in the White House and remains a prominent supporter, said on his podcast that McCabe “should be worried” that Trump would go after him if he returns to the White House.

“You should be very worried,” Bannon said. “But also understand this, brother, we have extradition treaties with virtually every country in the world. And you go ahead and run and run as far as you want. We're going to come and get you." (Bannon is currently serving a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress and is due to be released at the end of October.)

Trump reposted Bannon’s comments on Truth Social.

“It shows you, I think, and in serious terms, a persistent commitment to this idea of ‘we are going on the revenge tour,’” McCabe said in response to those comments.

McCabe said he has had difficult conversations with his family about what Trump might do if he returns to the White House, and he knows other former officials who are also contemplating leaving the country.

“I don't intend to leave the country that I served for 21 years,” McCabe said. “But this kind of pits you against your children and your spouses who just want you to be safe.”

Grisham said she is also making preparations in case Trump returns to the White House — and saving up money.

Trump has not threatened her with jail time or prosecution, but did attack her in personal terms after she published a book critical of the administration.

“I'm definitely fearful for myself and for many of my friends who have spoken out, too,” Grisham said. “It's a terrifying thought, because that is literally the most powerful person in the world that knows you and wants only bad for you. It's truly a terrifying thought.”

Exposition Park’s new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens to the public on Sept. 22 — and LAist got a preview.

The 300,000-square-foot building, designed by architect Ma Yansong, working with the firm Stantec, could easily blend into the scenery of Coruscant or Bespin in the Star Wars universe.

For the fans of that certain long-time ago, far, far-away universe, you are immediately greeted by a Naboo Starfighter big enough to fit inside at the museum entrance with a life-size R2-D2 in the co-pilot seat.

Star Wars fans will definitely get their fill with pieces like this in the cinema section:

Doug Chiang, Podrace Crash, production art for "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace," 1995–99. Digital print.

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You can find designs and set pieces from other George Lucas production companies, Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, but the museum is dedicated to impactful storytelling of all kinds, with a special focus on the work of illustrators.

“Most of the stories are myths, they're not real, but the illustrations make them real,” George Lucas said at a preview event. “A picture is very powerful, and the stories are very powerful, and you combine them together, and those two elements create a society.”

So, you’ll also see works like this E.H. Shepard illustration from Winnie-the-Pooh in a section dedicated to children’s stories.

E. H. Shepard, “Christopher Robin at the enchanted place,” illustration for Home Chat, 1928.

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And that’s not the only significant work you’ll see there.

 “You can see one of the first historically important ‘dogs playing poker’ paintings made in 1894 as a whiskey advertisement, very close to Frida Kahlo, very close to Batman,” Lucas Museum senior curator Ryan Linkof said.

The museum’s umbrella of “narrative art” encompasses fine art like these works from painter, pro-football player and actor Ernie Barnes, photographer Dorothea Lange, and comic book artist Rafael Navarro:

Ernie Barnes, The Critic’s Corner, 2007. Acrylic on canvas.

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Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936.

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Rafael Navarro, art for Sonámbulo: Mexican Stand-Off, 2006.

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Murals and public art

The museum features public art installations — both reproductions of works by Diego Rivera and Banksy.

Three of the featured works by Banksy.

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You'll also experience an extensive video installation of Judith Baca’s The Great Wall of Los Angeles, which you can take in while sitting instead of having to walk the whole length.

A new green space in the middle of the city

The museum boasts extensive grounds built on a former parking lot. There, you can see a number of sculptures, including one of Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia.

Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia statue.

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“This public park is available and accessible to everyone all the time, even if you don't come to the museum, even if the museum's not open. You can come to the research library,” Linkof said. “It's an asset and a resource for everyone, including and especially the community.”

How to visit

• Location: One Lucas Plaza, Exposition Park, Los Angeles
• Tickets: Timed tickets cost $25 for adults, $21 for seniors and are to free to minors, active-duty military, members and LM37 passholders. See your options ▶
• Park access: Free
• Regular hours:
  Mon, Wed, Thu: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
  Fri: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
  Sat: 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
  Sun: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
  Closed Tuesdays

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman on Wednesday won the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America L.A. in her challenge to incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. The DSA-LA is a potent political organization known for mounting successful door-knocking campaigns for candidates for political office.

The endorsement places the resources of DSA-LA to work for Raman in what’s expected to be a close race for mayor, but also opens Raman up to criticism that she’s too far left in her political views for the voters of L.A.

The endorsement came after Raman won more than 60% of the vote in an online election held within the organization over the past week. Of the more than 6,000 members in the L.A. region, 1,400 participated in the vote.

“With Raman at the top of the ticket, DSA-LA is organizing to unite tenants, union members, immigrant communities, and working Angelenos behind a slate that can break corporate interests’ grip on city government,” DSA-LA said in a statement. “Our vision is clear: win office, build a governing majority, and deliver a city working people can afford to call home.”

Raman, a member of the organization, was first elected with its help in an upset victory over an incumbent City Council member in 2020. She was the first of four DSA-LA members elected to the council in recent years.

“A socialist movement with a path to the mayor’s office in Los Angeles should make the political establishment nervous,” said Sean Wakasa, DSA-LA co-chair. “The opportunity in front of us is enormous, and we intend to meet it.”

Raman was not immediately available for comment.

A spokesperson for the Bass campaign did not comment specifically on the endorsement but pointed to some of the issues that surfaced in debates between the candidates, including how to handle homeless encampments and Police Department funding.

"Nithya Raman said kids aren't safer if an encampment is 500 feet away from a school and voted repeatedly to cut basic public safety funding to make LA safer," Alex Stack said. "Those are positions she now fully owns as she tries to flip-flop and convince voters otherwise."

Raman has defended her opposition to a ban on camping next to schools, saying moving them merely shuffles homeless people from one neighborhood to the next.

A 'double-edged sword'

Some voters will likely be turned off by the DSA’s endorsement of Raman, according to USC Political Science Professor Christian Grose.

“The DSA endorsement is definitely a double-edged sword,” he said. “It's going to hurt her with the Pratt voters, who will be decisive potentially in the election.”

Conservative T.V. personality Spencer Pratt finished third in the primary with 26% of the vote.

Grose added that Raman already has come under fire for her association with the DSA-LA.

“So those attacks were kind of happening already,” he said.

Wasaka said Raman nonetheless has a lot of appeal to progressive voters.

“Nithya Raman has had a long history with DSA-LA and has helped pass transformative policies at the city level,” Wasaka said. “Her leadership and progressive vision have aligned with DSA members, and we are excited to canvas for her and help her win.

“We’re knocking on tens of thousands of doors, we’re hosting fundraisers and we’re talking to all of our neighbors and families about how these candidates are going to build political power for the working class.”

The DSA-LA endorsed several other candidates in local elections, including Marissa Roy over John McKinney in the L.A. city attorney’s race.

Raman is a member of the DSA-LA, but was not endorsed in the primary, in part because some members said she didn’t hew closely enough to the party line. Raman, for example, wants to roll back part of the mansion tax, which places an extra tax on the sale of properties worth more than $5.4 million. Raman has said it discourages the building of affordable housing.

Other endorsements

The DSA-LA backing comes on the heels of another big endorsement of Raman from a major labor union. Earlier this week, Unite HERE Local 11, which represents hotel and restaurant workers, said it is backing Raman.

“Nithya Raman will fight alongside our members to protect working families, enforce our laws, preserve our housing, and hold corporations like Airbnb accountable when they take desperately needed homes off the market,” said Ada Briceño, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11.

Political scientist Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles said the union’s endorsement is important.

“I would 10 times more want the endorsement from UNITE HERE that has 30,000 members,” said Guerra. “They are one of the most powerful electoral bodies in terms of mobilization in all of California, especially in Los Angeles.”

Most labor unions back Bass in the election, including the powerful L.A. County Federation of Labor. The Democratic Party and Chamber of Commerce also have endorsed Bass.

Despite speculation earlier this week, a hurricane is not going to hit Southern California this weekend.

Tropical Storm Marie is churning in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles off the coast of Mexico. It’s expected to reach hurricane strength by Thursday morning.

The storm is moving northwest, which is typical for most storms in the eastern Pacific. Forecasters say the chance is extremely minimal that it will veer north.

“The current forecast track is for Marie to continue to move off to the west and northwest, further and further away,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Rich Thompson.

A diagram shows the likely path of Tropical Storm and Hurricane Marie through Monday morning.

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But that doesn’t mean we’ll dodge its effects completely.

Hurricanes can affect weather patterns from afar, and Marie is likely to significantly impact Southern California’s weather and beaches over Labor Day weekend.

Beware dangerous beach conditions

Recent storm surges already have damaged Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach. A storm off the coast now has meteorologists warning of rough beach conditions and high moisture heading into the Labor Day weekend.

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The strongest effects from the storm will be felt along the coast.

 ”Those beach coastal impacts are gonna be the big thing to watch for this weekend,” Thompson said. “You're going to have a large and southeast southerly swell moving into the coastal waters from the hurricane.”

Forecasters are warning that the swell will come with dangerously strong rip currents and big waves, especially along south-facing beaches. It could also bring the potential for coastal flooding.

The swell's peak will probably hit Sunday and Monday.

Surf along the Southern California coast has already been high this summer. Last weekend, the conditions, combined with large beach crowds, led to more than 1,200 ocean rescues by L.A. County lifeguards. With temperatures soaring, more than 1 million people went to L.A. County beaches last weekend.

And with the holiday this weekend, large crowds are likely to return to the beaches, potentially putting more people in the path of even more dangerous ocean conditions.

If you do plan to go to the beach, the safest option is to stay near occupied lifeguard posts and heed lifeguard warnings. Also, stay off of jetties and coastal rocks.

If you’re caught in a rip current, swim parallel to the shoreline. Once you stop feeling the current’s pull, swim at an angle away from the current and toward the shore. If needed, tread water and wave for help.

National Weather Service safety tips on how to move out of a rip current safely.

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The ocean conditions this weekend are also coming after high surf and tides have already caused significant coastal erosion ahead of this winter’s El Niño.

Moisture incoming

Marie will also bring a surge of moisture to Southern California, which means beaches will likely be socked in by tropical cloud cover.

It also means there will be a chance of rain across the region.

But at most, the rain will be light, with about a 50% chance of half an inch or less. Forecasters do not expect precipitation to be heavy enough to cause mudslides or hydrate vegetation in any significant way.

However, there is still some uncertainty among forecasters when it comes to the amount of rain and strength of the storm — they could vary if the storm’s path shifts even slightly.

“ That's what we're watching very closely in the next several days,” Thompson said. “If the forecast does seem to change over the next couple of days, it's because the track of the storm would have changed.”

If the storm veers slightly closer to North America, Thompson said the amount of rain and severity of ocean conditions would increase. If it veers the other direction, they would decrease.

Los Angeles Unified has blocked student access to generative artificial intelligence tools on district-issued devices.

”This is an emerging technology,” said Pia Sadaqatmal, chief academic officer in an interview with LAist. “We will continue to be adaptive as needed, but we do know that the heart of it is really making sure that we keep teaching and learning at the center of our decision.”

Wednesday’s announcement, made at the kickoff meeting of a new AI committee, was a surprise to board members and parents in attendance.

“Just based on the facial expressions of folks in this room, many parents, some of whom work at the district, some of whom don't, I don't think it's well-publicized,” said Nick Melvoin, one of three board members on the committee, after district staff explained the restrictions. “I would encourage us to do more.”

The district’s decision bars an estimated 378,000 students from using generative AI tools on LAUSD laptops and tablets. New York City’s public school system — the only district in the country larger than LAUSD — also announced new limits on artificial intelligence Tuesday.

Parents affiliated with the advocacy group Schools Beyond Screens, which has called for a moratorium on student AI usage in the district, edited prepared comments as they stood at the podium before the committee.

“ We are asking our local institut — no, we're thanking our local institution,” said Sandra Martinez Roe.  "Thank you, LAUSD for setting an example and knowing that your obligation is to do so.”

How LAUSD changed course on AI 

Previously, district policy allowed students 13 and older to use AI tools under school supervision and after they complete a lesson about “digital citizenship.”  

The LAUSD board voted in June to enact what was then the most-widespread student screentime restrictions in the country, but did not specify limitations to student AI use.

The resolution instead created an ad hoc generative AI committee with the goal of developing policy recommendations for board approval by next year.

Committee chair Kelly Gonez said the new restrictions were a surprise, but that she substantially agreed with the decision to limit students’ access to generative AI.

“ I wouldn't expect necessarily that there would be a pause for forever,” Gonez said. “But this provides us the opportunity to really think through what does our policy look like moving forward.”

How the AI rules work in practice

There is currently no mechanism or policy to prevent students from using AI on personal devices to complete school work, though the software will continue to block access if a student signs in to their district profile on that personal device.

District leaders said the web-filtering software Lightspeed prevents students from accessing any website or app categorized as an AI tool on an LAUSD Chromebook. There is a comparable tool for tablets, said  David Cooper, senior director of information technology.

The district’s interim chief information officer, Douglas Le, said Lightspeed can also track how long students use district devices.

“This allows us to capture their screen time, the app usage to the second,” he said.

That information will be available in the future to students’ families through the Parent Portal app, teachers and the board, Le said.

How to weigh in on LAUSD’s AI policy

The LAUSD board’s generative AI committee meeting is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays through April 2027.

• Oct. 21, 2026
• Dec. 9, 2026
• Jan. 20, 2027
• March 3, 2027
• April 7, 2027

Community members can tune in to the meetings online, over the phone or in person at the board room at 333 S. Beaudry Ave.

The district is also publishing information related to student screentime and other technology use, including information about a series of webinars, at lausd.org/screentime.