SAN FRANCISCO — The legal fight over control of the National Guard in California goes back to court in San Francisco Friday after a federal appeals court ruled President Trump can stay in command of the troops.
The judge on Friday has to decide whether to issue a more detailed order restricting what the president can do with the troops in LA. That’s around 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active duty Marines.
The decision from the appeals court Thursday halts a ruling from a lower court judge who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The deployment was the first by a president of a state National Guard without the governor’s permission since 1965.
In its decision, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously concluded it was likely Trump lawfully exercised his authority in federalizing control of the guard.
Gov. Newsom responded on X:
It said that while presidents don’t have unfettered power to seize control of a state’s guard, the Trump administration had presented enough evidence to show it had a defensible rationale for doing so, citing violent acts by protesters.
“The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters ‘pinned down’ several federal officers and threw ‘concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects’ at the officers. Protesters also damaged federal buildings and caused the closure of at least one federal building. And a federal van was attacked by protesters who smashed in the van’s windows,” the court wrote. “The federal government’s interest in preventing incidents like these is significant.”
It also found that even if the federal government failed to notify the governor of California before federalizing the National Guard as required by law, Newsom had no power to veto the president’s order.
The California governor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump celebrated the decision on his Truth Social platform, calling it a “BIG WIN.”
He wrote that “all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done.”
The court case could have wider implications on the president’s power to deploy soldiers within the United States after Trump directed immigration officials to prioritize deportations from other Democratic-run cities.
Trump argued that the troops were necessary to restore order. Newsom said the move inflamed tensions, usurped local authority and wasted resources. The protests have since appeared to be winding down.
Two judges on the appeals panel were appointed by Trump during his first term. During oral arguments Tuesday, all three judges suggested that presidents have wide latitude under the federal law at issue and that courts should be reluctant to step in.
The case started when Newsom sued to block Trump’s command, and he won an early victory from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco.
Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said only allows presidents can take control during times of “rebellion or danger of a rebellion.”
“The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ‘rebellion,’” wrote Breyer, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton and is brother to retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
The Trump administration, though, argued that courts can’t second-guess the president’s decisions and quickly secured a temporary halt from the appeals court.
The ruling means control of the California National Guard will stay in federal hands as the lawsuit continues to unfold.
