A federal appeals court ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration can continue commanding thousands of California National Guard troops and deploy them in Los Angeles. This decision temporarily halts a lower court’s order that had declared President Donald Trump’s federalization of the troops unlawful.
The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the administration to keep at least 4,000 National Guard members and several hundred Marines under federal control while the legal dispute continues. The court scheduled a hearing on the case for Tuesday. Meanwhile, California officials have criticized the military presence as unnecessary and likely to escalate tensions.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a temporary restraining order blocking the deployment. He ruled that the federal government lacked the legal authority to nationalize California’s National Guard without the governor’s consent.
Breyer’s decision came after a hearing in San Francisco and represented a major setback for Trump, who had increased the number of federalized troops to respond to protests in Los Angeles triggered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, strongly opposed the deployment. He argued that militarized forces would worsen protests and that the administration failed to follow federal law requiring notification and approval from the state governor.
Newsom wrote a letter urging the Trump administration to relinquish control of the troops. California Attorney General Rob Bonta later filed a federal lawsuit challenging the deployment, asserting the administration violated the statute governing National Guard federalization.
Judge Breyer agreed with California’s position, stating that Trump exceeded his authority by not notifying Newsom as required by law. Breyer wrote that the president’s actions were illegal and violated the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He ordered the immediate return of control of the National Guard to Governor Newsom but stayed his order to allow the administration time to appeal.
Newsom hailed the ruling as a victory for the Constitution and democracy, calling it a pushback against presidential overreach. The Justice Department criticized the ruling as an unprecedented intrusion on the president’s powers as Commander in Chief. They argued that decisions about deploying the National Guard are the president’s prerogative and should not be second-guessed by courts.
Breyer’s order does not affect the deployment of about 700 Marines in Los Angeles, as the governor has no authority over the Marine Corps. The judge expressed uncertainty about how to regulate their presence.
The legal battle highlights a tense standoff between state and federal authorities over the use of military forces in response to civil unrest and immigration enforcement in California.
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