A federal judge on Wednesday ruled the Trump administration must end its federal takeover of the California National Guard and return control of the force to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The Founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances,” U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in a 35-page ruling. “Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one.”
Los Angeles was among the first cities targeted by the Trump administration earlier this summer following a weekend of protests against the administration’s immigration crackdown. Trump originally sent more than 4,000 troops to the city, the majority of whom have since been withdrawn, leaving just under 100 members.
The administration has sought to extend the federalization of the state’s National Guard several times, most recently until February, saying it’s still necessary.
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The White House has argued in court that after federalizing a state’s National Guard, any extension should be allowed, without review.
“That is shocking,” Breyer wrote on Wednesday, saying that adopting the Trump administration’s interpretation of the law would “permit a president to create a perpetual police force comprised of state troops, so long as they were first federalized lawfully.”
“Such a scenario would validate the Founders’ ‘widespread fear [of] a national standing Army,’ which they believed ‘posed an intolerable threat to individual liberty and to the sovereignty of the separate States,’” Breyer continued. “Defendants’ argument for a president to hold unchecked power to control state troops would wholly upend the federalism that is at the heart of our system of government.”
The White House has federalized National Guard troops in at least five cities across the country since Trump assumed office. Nearly all of those deployments are currently tied up in legal battles, including one case before the Supreme Court concerning Chicago.
“Today’s ruling is abundantly clear — the federalization of the National Guard in California is illegal and must end,” Newsom said in a statement to Cal Matters. “The president deployed these brave men and women against their own communities, removing them from essential public safety operations. We look forward to all National Guard servicemembers being returned to state service.”
The White House did not confirm whether it plans to appeal Breyer’s ruling, but in a statement to NOTUS said, “President Trump exercised his lawful authority to deploy National Guard troops to support federal officers and assets following violent riots that local leaders like Newscum refused to stop.”
“We look forward to ultimate victory on the issue,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
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