A federal appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump's deployment of 4,000 members of the California National Guard to the Los Angeles area last year was an unlawful abuse of his authority. In a 2-1 decision on Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld a trial court's preliminary injunction that prevented the deployment.
Source: Military.com
Writing for the majority, Judge Jennifer Sung said Trump's initial federalization of the Guard 'exceeded the President's statutory authority and encroached on Congress's calling forth power.' The opinion built in large part on the U.S. Supreme Court's precedent in Trump v. Illinois, which held that Trump lacked authority to federalize troops to quell protests in that state.
Source: Bloomberg Law
The panel also rejected the administration's argument that protests against immigration enforcement in Los Angeles amounted to a 'rebellion' that would allow federalization. Sung wrote that while some people committed serious breaches of the peace, the district court had found 'no evidence of organized, as apart from sporadic or impromptu, violence.' The court said the administration had not made either of the required threshold showings.
Source: Military.com
Judge Eric Miller, a Trump appointee, concurred with Sung, a Biden appointee. Judge Mark Bennett, also a Trump appointee, dissented, saying the appeal's procedural posture meant the court should not have decided the difficult questions until after a final judgment and fuller litigation of Trump v. Illinois. The case is Newsom v. Trump, 9th Circuit, No. 25-3727.
Source: Bloomberg Law
California Governor Gavin Newsom welcomed the ruling, saying: 'Today is a crucial day for the rule of law, upholding the Constitution and defending democracy.' Attorney General Rob Bonta said deploying the Guard in Los Angeles was 'a clear example of federal overreach.' The U.S. Justice Department did not respond to Military.com's request for comment.
Source: Military.com
The ruling will have little immediate effect on the ground, because the administration ended its deployment of federalized troops in California in December last year. Its importance is as precedent: it limits when a president can take control of a state's National Guard over a governor's objection. The dispute began in June 2025, after immigration sweeps in Los Angeles and confrontations near a Department of Homeland Security staging area in Paramount, south of Los Angeles, where the week-long tally of immigrant arrests in the city had climbed past 100.