Police and nationwide guards take measures as hundreds of anti-ICE protesters are gathered exterior of the Federal Constructing in Los Angeles, California on June 9, 2025 amid protests over immigration raids.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu | Getty Photos
A federal decide mentioned Thursday that President Donald Trump’s federalizing of California Nationwide Guard troops and deploying them to Los Angeles was “unlawful,” and ordered him to return management of the Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
However Decide Charles Breyer stayed his momentary restraining order from taking impact till 3 p.m. ET on Friday to permit the Trump administration to attraction his determination. The administration promptly did simply that, asking the ninth Circuit U.S. Courtroom of Appeals to dam Breyer’s ruling from taking impact.
Trump, over the previous week, had federalized 4,000 members of the California Nationwide Guard, and mobilized one other roughly 700 U.S. Marines to reply to protests in Los Angeles in opposition to federal immigration enforcement actions in that metropolis.
Newsom and California’s lawyer common sued to reverse Trump’s federalization of the Guard with out the consent of the governor, which was the primary time in U.S. historical past a president had taken such an motion.
Breyer’s order got here hours after a listening to in U.S. District Courtroom in San Francisco, the place he sharply questioned legal professionals for the federal authorities on Trump’s rationale and authority for the transfer.
At one level, the decide mentioned, “We reside in response to a monarchy,” noting that there’s a distinction between the president and King George III, the British monarch on the throne on the time of the American Revolution.
“At this early stage of the proceedings, the Courtroom should decide whether or not the President adopted the congressionally mandated process for his actions. He didn’t,” Breyer wrote in his order.
“His actions had been unlawful — each exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Modification to the USA Structure,” the decide wrote. “He should subsequently return management of the California Nationwide Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.”
Breyer mentioned that not one of the three situations required for Trump’s federalization of the Guard below a sure federal statute existed, specifically the U.S. having been invaded or at risk of being invaded; a “rebel” in opposition to the federal authorities; or the president being unable to execute U.S. legal guidelines.
“The protests in Los Angeles fall far wanting ‘rebel,’ ” Breyer wrote.
And he mentioned that “regardless” of the end result of California’s lawsuit in opposition to the administration, Trump’s federalizing of the Guard with out the consent of Newsom “alone threatens critical damage to the constitutional stability of energy between the federal and state governments.”
“And it units a harmful precedent for future home army exercise,” Breyer added.
Breyer scheduled a listening to for June 20, the place legal professionals for the federal authorities will likely be requested to argue why the decide mustn’t subject a extra lasting preliminary injunction in opposition to Trump’s motion.
Newsom praised the order, and his workplace additionally tweeted a video exhibiting the “Demise Star,” constructed by the evil Empire within the “Star Wars” film collection, exploding in house after it was attacked by forces of the Insurgent Alliance.
“The courtroom simply confirmed what everyone knows — the army belongs on the battlefield, not on our metropolis streets,” Newsom mentioned in a submit on X.
“This win isn’t just for California, however the nation,” Newsom wrote. “It is a test on a person whose authoritarian tendencies are growing by the day. Finish the unlawful militarization of Los Angeles now, @realDonaldTrump.”
“Historical past is watching.”
