Late at night Thursday, the U.S. Ninth Circuit suspended a court order requiring President Trump to return control of thousands of California State Guards in Los Angeles to Governor Gavin Newsom.
The 9th Circuit emergency retreat comes hours after U.S. District Judge San Francisco Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump broke the law when he mobilized thousands of security guards amid protests over immigrant raids, and ruled that the troops had to be returned to national control by noon Friday.
A panel of three judges in the 9th Circuit, including two judges appointed by Trump and one judge by President Biden, was scheduled for hearing Tuesday.
In a 36-page US District Court ruling, Breyer wrote that Trump’s actions were “illegal, both of which exceed the scope of statutory authorities and violated the 10th amendment of the US Constitution.” Breyer added that he is “troubled” inherent to the Trump administration’s argument that “protest against the federal government, a core civil liberty protected by the First Amendment, can justify the discovery of the rebellion.”
Newsom, who filed a lawsuit with California, called the rule “a victory for all Americans.”
“Today is really about the test of democracy, and today I passed the test,” Newsom told reporters for the building that houses the California Supreme Court in San Francisco.
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Control of California. General Rob Bonta told reporters, “It is an important early indication that when we quickly review the facts of our case, the courts are seeing the merits of our argument.”
“We are not in the pain of the rebellion,” Bonta said. “We are not under the threat of invasion. There is nothing that prevents the federal government from enforcing federal laws. The situation in Los Angeles last weekend did not justify the deployment of the military.
The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal in the lawsuit late Thursday.
During his hearing with Breyer, the judge appeared skeptical of the Justice Department’s argument that the court could not question the president’s decision on key legal issues, such as whether Los Angeles’ protests and anxiety constituted either “a danger of rebellion or rebellion.”
“We’re talking about the president exercising his authority, and of course the president is limited to his authority,” Breyer said. “That’s the difference between the president and King George.”
Trump and the White House argued that military mobilization is legal under section 12406 of Title 10 of the US Act on the Armed Forces. This gives the President the power to federate the National Guard if there is “a risk of rebellion or rebellion against the authority of the US government.”
“The protests in Los Angeles are far below the “rebellion,” Breyer wrote. He said there were cases of violence, but the Trump administration did not identify as “violent, armed, organized, open and openly worshipped against the entire government.”
“The evidence is overwhelming that protesters gathered to protest one issue: immigrant raids,” writes Breyer.
Title 10 also requires that an order from the president be “issued through the governor of the state.”
As governor, Newsom is the commander of the chief of the California National Guard. Last Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses sent a note to the head of the California State Guard, mobilizing nearly 2,000 members. Neither Newsom nor his office agreed to mobilize, the lawsuit said.
Newsom wrote to Hegses on Sunday, asking him to withdraw his military deployment. The letter stated that mobilization is “a serious violation of national sovereignty that appears to be intentionally designed to inflame the situation, and simultaneously deprives them of preventing these staff and resources from being deployed where they are truly needed.”
“If you didn’t actually send it to him, I’m trying to understand that something is “through” someone,” Breyer asked. “As long as he has got a copy of it at some point, is it going through?”
But Breyer didn’t want Trump to engage in the legality of deploying the US Marines in Los Angeles. California lawyers noted that 140 Marines will be resilient and replaced security guards over the next 24 hours.
Protests emerged across Los Angeles on Friday in response to a string of flash attacks by immigrants and customs enforcement agents across the county. A handful of agitators committed violence and vandalism among protesters, urging Trump to quickly deploy the California National Guard to respond. He added an active Marine to the operation on Monday. The protests, and some sporadic violent riots, have continued since the unfolding.
Trump said mobilization was “necessary to deal with violent and incited riots,” and that without the National Guard, “Los Angeles would have completely disappeared.”
Breyer said the Trump administration has identified “several stray violence cases related to the protest,” from which he “are boldly claiming that state and local officials “cannot control the mob.”
“To take over the power of state police forces is not to take over the power of state police forces, but to be frustrated with how fierce or swiftly the state is enforcing its own laws,” Breyer wrote.
Attorney generals from 18 other states and Atty, Los Angeles. Hydee Feldstein-Soto supported California’s position in the incident.
Wilner reported Wong of San Francisco and Nelson of Los Angeles from Washington, DC.
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