Appeals Court Backs Trump on Guard

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s attempt to regain command of the National Guard troops President Donald Trump sent to Los Angeles in the wake of immigration enforcement protests has been permanently barred by a federal appeals court. 

Trump seems to have acted within his power when he seized control of 4,000 California National Guard troops using a legislation that has never been used without a state governor’s approval, according to a unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is situated in San Francisco.

 The justices, two of whom were selected by Trump and one by President Joe Biden, came to the conclusion that the legislation affords Trump a great deal of discretion to decide that the protests and the violence they caused were interfering with the application of federal law, despite disagreements regarding the extent of the violence that accompanied the demonstrations. 

The justices said that although the president’s authority to summon the Guard has its limits, Trump’s actions were justified by sufficient evidence of social disorder and risk to federal personnel. Newsom, a Democrat, may ask the Supreme Court for immediate relief or ask the appeals court’s larger, 11-judge panel to take up the matter.