A United States appeals court allowed the government of Donald Trump to maintain control and deploy thousands of National Guard troops in the city of Los Angeles to address the riots and protests against his immigration policy, despite criticism and doubts about federal jurisdiction in such cases.
The decision was made late by the judge, hours after District Judge Charles Breyer sided with local authorities and ordered Trump to return control of the National Guard to the state of California.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, composed of three judges, two appointed by Trump and one by Biden, set a hearing for next Tuesday.
The Department of Justice’s claims
The Department of Justice had stated that Breyer’s decision constituted a “rare intrusion into the authority granted to the president by the Constitution, who is the head of the Army and has decided to deploy this force as something necessary to protect the police officers.”
Trump celebrated the decision and said, “The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe. If I hadn’t sent the Armed Forces to Los Angeles, that city would be in flames right now. We saved Los Angeles. Thank you for the decision!"
Strictly speaking, the court did not rule in favor of the Trump administration, they just paused Judge Breyer’s decision until hearing arguments from both sides.
Hours before the appeals court decision, Judge Breyer declared that the Trump administration had acted without properly notifying Governor Gavin Newsom, as required by the relevant statute for the deployment of the California National Guard.
Breyer stated in his ruling that the actions of the federal Executive exceeded the legal limits established by the Constitution, by not respecting the Tenth Amendment, which safeguards the autonomy of the states.
Governor hardens his attacks against Trump
After the federal judge’s ruling, and before the decision of the appeals court was known, the governor of California intensified his criticisms against the President of the United States by declaring in a press conference that Trump “is not a king” and should “stop behaving as if he were”.
In addition, regarding the unprecedented parade scheduled for this Saturday in Washington DC which coincides with Trump’s birthday, Gavin Newsom said, “you see it with dictators from all over the world who are weak and only want to appear strong, weakness disguised as strength, to celebrate the dear leader on his birthday.” He added a strong criticism: “What a shame. Honestly, it is as low as you can get. How weak.”