Trump keeps control of California National Guard in LA for now after appeals court order

Demonstrators protest outside a downtown jail in Los Angeles following two days of clashes with police during a series of immigration raids on June 8, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A federal appeals court late Thursday quickly froze a lower court’s order that President Donald Trump return command of 4,000 California National Guard troops to Gov. Gavin Newsom and set a schedule to more fully hear the closely watched case in the coming days.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a one-page order pausing implementation of U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer’s order issued just hours earlier that called for Trump to relinquish control of the National Guard by noon Friday.

The panel asked the state to file a written brief by 9 a.m. Pacific time Sunday and scheduled oral arguments for Tuesday.

The short 9th Circuit order did not explain the panel’s rationale for granting an administrative stay of Breyer’s order.

The Trump administration appealed and asked for the stay shortly after Breyer issued his ruling Thursday evening. Breyer said the mobilization was illegal and there were limits to Trump’s statutory authority.

Breyer’s order was “an extraordinary intrusion on the President’s constitutional authority as Commander in Chief to call forth the National Guard as necessary to protect federal officials, as well as his statutory authority … to mobilize state National Guards into federal service to quell riotous mobs committing crimes against federal personnel and property and to protect federal officials’ ability to enforce federal law,” the administration said. “The order also puts federal officers in harms’ way every minute that it is in place.”

The state opposed the request for a stay, saying Breyer’s “extensive reasoning” had shown the state would be irreparably harmed without court intervention.

Trump called up the state National Guard on Sunday in response to protests in Los Angeles over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Newsom opposed the deployment, saying it would only make the situation more volatile.

It was the first time in 60 years that a president called up a state’s National Guard over the objection of the governor.

California sued the administration to block the federalization, arguing that the president unlawfully took control of the state National Guard.

Breyer took the state’s side in his Thursday evening order, saying Trump violated the 10th Amendment to the Constitution that protects states’ rights.