Politics
NEW: Appeals Court Delivers Huge Win For Trump In High-Profile Legal Battle
In a significant win for the Trump administration, a federal appeals court has vindicated President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize thousands of National Guard soldiers and deploy them to the streets of Los Angeles, where more than a week of rioting resulted in the destruction of businesses, attacks on police officers, and even the death of one participant.
The decision, issued late Thursday night, lets Trump keep control of approximately 4,000 members of the California National Guard who were called up to bring an end to the riots. The move was quickly condemned by Governor Newsom, who sued to keep control of the soldiers and accused the president of acting “unlawfully.”
However, a three-member panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with Newsom, unanimously concluding that President Trump was within his authority to direct the troops.
While U.S. presidents do not hold unlimited authority to direct members of the U.S. military into the nation’s streets, the court agreed that administration officials presented enough evidence to prove it was necessary in this case, citing action by violent protestors.
“The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters ‘pinned down’ several federal officers and threw ‘concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects’ at the officers. Protesters also damaged federal buildings and caused the closure of at least one federal building. And a federal van was attacked by protesters who smashed in the van’s windows,” the court wrote, according to the AP. “The federal government’s interest in preventing incidents like these is significant.”
Trump cheered the decision on Truth Social, calling it a “BIG WIN” for L.A.
“[A]ll over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done,” he said.
Newsom expressed disappointment in a statement, though he tried to spin part of the decision as a victory.
“The court rightly rejected Trump’s claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court,” Newsom said. “The President is not a king and is not above the law. We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump’s authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens.”
Protests have mostly wound down since Saturday’s “No Kings” events across the U.S., which were triggered by protests and riots in L.A. and Trump’s decision to bring in members of the National Guard and Marines. Gov. Newsom accused Trump of usurping his authority, signaling to Democrats that they would benefit by framing Trump as dictatorial.
The California governor won an early victory when U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco sided with him, writing that the Trump administration failed to show evidence of “rebellion or danger of a rebellion” necessitating the Guard. However, the decision was stayed by the appeals court until Thursday’s decision.
The ruling carries broad implications for President Trump’s ability to deploy forces into other blue cities where protests have turned violent. Republicans have frequently cited riots that occurred in Minneapolis and Portland during the George Floyd protests of 2020, arguing that Trump, this time around, is right to take more aggressive action to keep the peace.