A federal appeals court is allowing President Donald Trump tomaintain controlover thousands ofmembers of California’s National Guard.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request from Trump to lift, for now, a lower-court ruling that had required the president to relinquish control of roughly 4,000 guardsman from the Golden State that he had federalized tobeef up security in Los Angeles amid unrestover immigration enforcement.
The court said in an unsigned ruling “that it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority” under the federal law he invoked to federalize the guardsmen earlier this month, rejecting arguments pushed by California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that Trump had violated federal law when he seized control of part of his state’s militia.
Last week, US District Judge Charles Breyer directed the president to relinquish control of the guardsmen after concluding that Trump had violated several provisions of the law he leaned on in order to take control of the troops, including one that requires presidents to issue an order “through the governor” when they want to federalize state troops.
The appeals court briefly put Breyer’s ruling on hold shortly after it was issued, and Thursday’s ruling from the 9th Circuit extends that pause while the legal challenge plays out. California has the option of asking the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis.
This is a developing story and will be updated.