A federal appeals court late Thursday blocked a lower court judge’s order instructing President Donald Trump to return control of 4,000 California National Guard troops that he had federalized to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer had ruled that Trump’s action was “illegal,” but stayed his order from taking effect until 3 p.m. ET on Friday to allow the Trump administration to appeal his decision.
The administration promptly did just that, asking the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to block Breyer’s ruling from taking effect.
The 9th Circuit, in temporarily granting that request, scheduled a hearing for Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the appellate court will consider arguments then on whether to extend a stay of Breyer’s order, or allow his ruling to take effect.
Trump, over the past week, federalized 4,000 members of the California Guard and mobilized another approximately 700 U.S. Marines to respond to protests in Los Angeles against federal immigration enforcement actions in that city.
Newsom and California’s attorney general sued to reverse Trump’s takeover of the Guard without the consent of the governor, the first time in U.S. history a president had taken such an action under the special provision that Trump invoked.
Breyer’s order came hours after a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, where he sharply questioned lawyers for the federal government on Trump’s rationale and authority for the move.
At one point, the judge said, “We live in response to a monarchy,” noting that there is a difference between the president and King George III, the British monarch on the throne at the time of the American Revolution.
“At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions. He did not,” Breyer wrote in his order.
“His actions were illegal — both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the judge wrote. “He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.”
Breyer said that none of the three conditions required for Trump’s federalization of the Guard under a certain federal statute existed, namely the U.S. having been invaded or in danger of being invaded; a “rebellion” against the federal government; or the president being unable to execute U.S. laws.
“The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ‘rebellion,’ ” Breyer wrote.
And he said that “regardless” of the outcome of California’s lawsuit against the administration, Trump’s federalizing of the Guard without the consent of Newsom “alone threatens serious injury to the constitutional balance of power between the federal and state governments.”
“And it sets a dangerous precedent for future domestic military activity,” Breyer added.
Breyer scheduled a hearing for June 20, where lawyers for the federal government will be asked to argue why the judge should not issue a more lasting preliminary injunction against Trump’s action. It is not clear if that hearing will proceed as planned now that the appeals court has intervened.
Trump on Friday morning reacted to the appeals court’s stay.
“The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!”
Newsom on Thursday night praised Breyer’s ruling before it was paused.
And his office tweeted a video showing the “Death Star,” built by the evil Empire in the “Star Wars” movie series, exploding in space after it was attacked by forces of the Rebel Alliance.
“The court just confirmed what we all know — the military belongs on the battlefield, not on our city streets,” Newsom said in a post on X.
“This win is not just for California, but the nation,” Newsom wrote. “It’s a check on a man whose authoritarian tendencies are increasing by the day. End the illegal militarization of Los Angeles now, @realDonaldTrump.”
“History is watching.”
T
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