Court orders Trump to return National Guard control to Newsom

Michael Wilner and Queenie Wong, Los Angeles Times on Jun 12, 2025

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SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to “return control” of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom after the president issued an extraordinary order deploying them to Los Angeles over the weekend.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, presiding over the case, granted California’s request for a temporary restraining order, granting the federal government a stay until Friday to appeal the ruling.

Breyer had expressed skepticism at a hearing Thursday over the matter, questioning whether President Donald Trump had operated within his authority.

“We’re talking about the president exercising his authority, and of course, the president is limited in his authority,” Breyer said. “That’s the difference between the president and King George.”

“We live in response to a monarchy,” the judge continued, adding: “Line drawing is important, because it establishes a system of process.”

In the lengthy decision, Breyer wrote that he is “troubled by the implication” inherent in Trump administration’s argument “that protest against the federal government, a core civil liberty protected by the First Amendment, can justify a finding of rebellion.”

And while the Justice Department had requested the judge issue a preliminary injunction in the case, Breyer said he would require the government to show cause for one over the next several days.

The judge directed most of his questioning to the Trump administration, which has cited Title 10 of the U.S. Code to justify the takeover of the National Guard. But that provision, the judge noted, requires that orders from the president “shall be issued through the governors of the States.”

“I’m trying to figure out how something is ‘through’ somebody, if in fact you didn’t send it to him,” Breyer asked. “As long as he gets a copy of it at some point, it’s going through?”

The judge was less willing, however, to engage in the legality of Trump’s deployment of U.S. Marines to Los Angeles. Attorneys for California noted that 140 Marines were scheduled to relieve and replace Guardsmen over the next 24 hours.

The case was brought by California against the Trump administration earlier this week after a historic weekend in L.A. County. The state contends that Trump exceeded his authority in an “unprecedented power grab” by federalizing the Guard without the consent of Gov. Gavin Newsom, and by deploying Marines on American soil.

Protests emerged across Los Angeles on Friday in response to a series of flash raids by Customs and Border Enforcement agents across the county. A handful of agitators among the protesters committed violence and vandalism, prompting Trump to first threaten, and then quickly deploy, the California National Guard to respond. He added active-duty Marines to the operation on Monday. Protests, and some sporadic violent rioting, have continued since the deployments.

(Wilner reported from Washington, D.C., and Wong from San Francisco.)