Last week, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order against President Donald Trump's unilateral deployment of the California National Guard, saying that decision was illegal and unconstitutional. That same day, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit imposed an administrative stay on U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's order, and on Thursday the court decided the stay should continue while the case is pending.
That ruling represents both a victory and a defeat for the Trump administration. The three-judge panel unanimously concluded that the president probably complied with the statute he cited to justify the deployment. But it also unanimously rejected Trump's bold argument that it had no business addressing that issue because his decision was "unreviewable."
On June 7, in response to protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, Trump instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to deploy 2,000 National Guard members, describing their mission as protecting federal personnel and facilities from "violence and disorder." California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately objected to that deployment, which was later increased to 4,000 troops, describing it as unnecessary, inflammatory, and illegal. Two days later, Newsom filed the federal lawsuit that resulted in Breyer's order.
