Trump administration can keep control of California National Guard troops for now, appeals court rules

The Trump administration can maintain control of several thousand National Guard troops in California and continue to deploy them in Los Angeles, a federal appeals court ruled late Thursday, pausing a lower court ruling that determined President Donald Trump's federalization of the guardsmen was unlawful

The Trump administration can maintain control of several thousand National Guard troops in California and continue to deploy them in Los Angeles, a federal appeals court ruled late Thursday, pausing a lower court ruling that determined President Donald Trump's federalization of the guardsmen was unlawful.

The ruling by a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals keeps in place Trump’s directives authorizing the deployment of at least 4,000 California National Guard troops and several hundred Marines pending further litigation, even as state leaders cast the military presence as unnecessary and escalatory.

The appeals court will hold a hearing on the matter Tuesday.

Hours before the appeals court ruling, a federal judge temporarily halted the deployment in Los Angeles, writing Thursday evening that the federal government did not have the authority to nationalize California’s National Guard.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued the temporary restraining order after an hourlong hearing in a San Francisco federal court. It marked a significant setback for Trump, who in recent days increased the number of California National Guard troops under his command by thousands as he sought to flex his executive power and blunt volatile protests in Los Angeles triggered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.