Appellate Court Halts Trump's Order
An appellate court temporarily blocked a federal judge’s order directing President Donald Trump to return control of California’s National Guard troops deployed in Los Angeles to Governor Gavin Newsom, after Trump’s controversial deployment of active duty military personnel to quell protests against his immigration crackdown this week.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in a filing Thursday Trump must “return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the ruling late Thursday after an appeal by the Trump administration.
Breyer said Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, which was done without Newsom’s approval, was illegal, “exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
Newsom called Breyer’s ruling a win for the U.S., saying it is “a check on a man whose authoritarian tendencies are increasing by the day,” and demanded Trump comply with Breyer’s order.
Breyer’s order was set to go into effect at 3 p.m. EDT on Friday, but the appellate court’s decision means troops in Los Angeles will remain under the president’s control.
Breyer’s now-paused order, however, only applies to California National Guard forces and not the U.S. Marines, who were also sent to Los Angeles by the Trump administration.
What Else Did Judge Breyer Say In His Ruling?
Earlier on Thursday, Breyer said it did not appear Trump issued his National Guard order through Newsom, which is a requirement when the president seeks to deploy the troops in a given state. Breyer also scrutinized Trump’s justification that the protests posed a danger of rebellion.
Trump cheered the ruling in an early morning Truth Social post, but appeared to wrongly suggest the temporary pause was a ruling backing his bid to “use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe.”
Immigration protests in Los Angeles began last week in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids conducted at retail spaces, graduations and courthouses in the city, as well as Trump’s larger immigration policies.
