The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has sided with President Donald Trump after California Governor Gavin Newsom sued his administration for deploying 4,000 National Guard troops during mass anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles that erupted earlier this month.
“We conclude that it is likely that the president lawfully exercised his statutory authority” by deploying the Guard, the appeals court wrote in a ruling late Thursday.
The judges cited a federal law allowing the federalization of the Guard when “the president is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
Additionally, the judges wrote that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth notifying the Adjutant General of the California National Guard, “likely satisfied the statute’s procedural requirement that federalization orders be issued ‘through’ the Governor.”
The appeals court order indefinitely blocks a previous order from U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer.
Breyer ruled last Thursday that Trump’s actions “were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
“He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith,” the judge wrote.
The Trump administration quickly appealed Breyer’s order, prompting the appeals court to temporarily pause the ruling the same night Breyer handed it down.
During a previous hearing before Breyer, an attorney for California claimed the Trump administration was attempting a “dangerous expansion of executive power” with its deployment of the Guard.
Trump’s team argued that the president rightfully used his powers as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and it communicated its orders to the state official responsible for the Guard.
At one point in the hearing, Breyer suggested political leaders making decisions without checks and balances were more like the king against whom the 13 colonies revolted during the American Revolution.
“That’s the difference between a Constitutional government and King George,” Breyer said, per Politico. “It’s not that a leader can simply say something and it becomes it.”
The Independent’s Alex Woodward contributed reporting.
