In a stinging rebuke to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s attempt to obstruct federal authority, a federal appeals court has indefinitely blocked his challenge to President Donald Trump.
The three-judge panel—made up of two Trump appointees and one Biden appointee—ruled unanimously that Trump acted well within his presidential powers when he federalized 4,000 California National Guard troops under a little-used statute.
The law, which has historically required a governor’s consent, was invoked unilaterally by Trump in response to violent protests and widespread unrest related to immigration enforcement.
Despite the highly politicized nature of the dispute, the panel concluded that Trump’s decision to take control of the California National Guard was justified given the breakdown of law and order in the streets of Los Angeles.
“There are limits to the president’s ability to call up the Guard,” the court acknowledged, “but there was enough evidence of civil unrest and danger to federal officials to justify Trump’s actions.”
During oral arguments earlier in the week, all three judges appeared skeptical of Newsom’s claims that the deployment would worsen tensions.
Newsom’s Legal Maneuvering Falls Flat
Newsom, desperate to regain control and likely pandering to his far-left base, argued that Trump’s actions would “inflame” protesters and escalate tensions. But the court dismissed those fears as speculative and unsupported by any meaningful evidence.
“California’s concerns about escalation and interference with local law enforcement, at present, are too speculative,” the judges wrote. “We do not know whether future protests will grow due to the deployment of the National Guard. And we do not know what emergencies may occur in California while the National Guard is deployed.”
Ironically, the facts on the ground contradict Newsom’s doomsday narrative. Since the Guard’s arrival and the enforcement of curfews, protests in downtown L.A. have notably decreased.
Even Mayor Karen Bass lifted the curfew days after the deployment, suggesting the situation is stabilizing under the firm federal hand.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, a Clinton-era appointee, had previously issued a temporary restraining order against Trump’s deployment, a move that the appeals court quickly stayed. Thursday’s decision to indefinitely block Breyer’s ruling keeps the Guard in place and deals a blow to the Democrats’ strategy of using the judiciary to micromanage federal law enforcement.
Though this is not the final word on the legality of Trump’s deployment, the ruling strongly signals that the courts are unwilling to entertain politically motivated challenges to the president’s core constitutional responsibilities—especially when public safety and national security are on the line.
Newsom could try to escalate the case to an 11-judge en banc panel or the Supreme Court, but as the situation on the ground continues to cool, his legal standing may disappear altogether.
For now, the message from the court is clear: when local leaders fail, the president has every right to step in and restore order.
He drinks wine as LA CA riots
Dems DONT Care
It hasn’t failed as it makes him more poplar with the idjits who vote in CA.