Trump to remain in temporary command of National Guard in L.A. following appeals court ruling

The long judicial tug-of-war between Donald Trump and California has begun. The judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency ruling Thursday night suspending a lower court ruling issued hours earlier. The decision means the Donald Trump administration will temporarily retain command of the military units sent to Los Angeles to assist with government raids and monitor street protests. Earlier in the afternoon, a federal judge had sided with Governor Gavin Newsom, determining that Trump violated the Constitution by mobilizing 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines without a state request. A new hearing will be held next Tuesday.

Judge Charles Breyer’s ruling was a setback for the Trump administration, which is engaged in a standoff with Newsom, one of the most prominent Democratic governors. But Washington almost immediately appealed the decision. It then ended up in the hands of the Ninth Circuit, territory more favorable to the Republican president, who appointed two of the three judges on the panel during his first term. The other came to the bench through Joe Biden.

With his order, Judge Breyer returned control of the National Guard to Newsom as of noon on Friday. Newsom celebrated the district court’s decision, announcing that he would return the guardsmen to their daily duties, such as monitoring the border with Mexico, combating fentanyl trafficking, and supporting the fight against the wildfires that have already begun to break out across the state.

“He is not a monarch. He is not a king, and he should stop acting like one,” Newsom said of Trump. On his X account, the governor celebrated the ruling with a single image, the explosion of the Death Star, having previously compared the president of the United States to Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars saga.

California went to court on Monday hoping the judiciary would halt the militarization of its streets ordered by Washington. It argued that the Constitution assigns states power over their security forces, unless they request that the federal government take control. “The Constitution and our laws strictly limit the domestic use of the military, including the National Guard,” the lawsuit states.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta argued that the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits military forces from performing civilian law enforcement duties. “This authority is reserved for very specific circumstances, which do not apply now,” he stated in the 22-page complaint. Limits on the military’s operations within the United States, the lawyers say, date back to the days of the Founding Fathers, who “distrusted military governments.”

Bonta accused the administration of exacerbating the situation with the troop movement. “Since Trump announced his plan to deploy troops, the situation on the ground has escalated quickly, with unrest growing overnight, causing highways to close and putting people in danger,” he said Monday. The following day, Mayor Karen Bass declared a curfew in parts of downtown to quell protests and reduce vandalism after several businesses were looted.

This was the 24th lawsuit California has filed against the government during Trump’s second term. On Thursday, state officials filed a 25th over Washington’s reversal of the state’s plan to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.

Bonta emphasized that the governor knows perfectly well how to request federal support. Newsom requested assistance from the National Guard in early 2025 to support local authorities after the Los Angeles wildfires and did so again in the summer of 2020, when social protests over the murder of George Floyd threatened public order. “This is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated the Guard without a request from a governor,” Bonta added.

The Trump administration on Wednesday called Newsom’s lawsuit a “political ploy.” Government lawyers argue that Trump mobilized the military by invoking discretionary emergency powers, which do not require a state executive branch to approve the use of troops on its territory. “This statute [Title 10] empowers the president to determine what forces he deems necessary to suppress a rebellion or to execute armed forces,” they assert. The lawyers say that not ruling in favor of the executive branch in this case is “dangerous” and “unprecedented.”

Justice Breyer, appointed by Bill Clinton, nevertheless sided with California. “The plaintiffs have proven in their argument that the president’s invocation was unlawful, as he exceeded his authority in violation of Title 10,” the judge stated. He had refused to issue an emergency ruling at Newsom’s request on Tuesday and adjourned the hearing until Thursday after hearing arguments from the parties for 70 minutes.

The military personnel who have already arrived in the city are scattered across eight locations across the vast Los Angeles area. Rather than patrolling, they are stationary, guarding a handful of federal buildings. Nearly 150 troops are monitoring the Homeland Security facilities in the city of Paramount, near where protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids took place Saturday. About 300 troops, the largest contingent, are near Los Angeles International Airport. Some 100 are accompanying ICE personnel as they execute arrest warrants for undocumented immigrants facing deportation orders. And about 30 are in Santa Ana, Orange County. All of them will be redeployed once the long judicial process in this case is concluded.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition