The Brief:
- A three-judge panel in San Francisco on Thursday unanimously sided with President Donald Trump, allowing the California National Guard to stay in Los Angeles.
- The ruling indefinitely blocks a previous order to put Gavin Newsom back in control of the National Guard.
- It is expected that this case will eventually be appealed to the Supreme Court.
“We disagree with Defendants’ primary argument that the President’s decision to federalize members of the California National Guard ... is completely insulated from judicial review,” Judge Mark J. Bennett of Honolulu, a Trump appointee, wrote for the appellate panel. “Nonetheless, we are persuaded that, under longstanding precedent interpreting the statutory predecessor ... our review of that decision must be highly deferential.”
LA Times:
The appellate panel sharply questioned both sides during Tuesday’s hearing, appearing to reject the federal government’s assertion that courts had no right to review the president’s actions, while also undercutting California’s claim that President Trump had overstepped his authority in sending troops to L.A. to quell a “rebellion against the authority of the United States.”
“All three judges seemed skeptical of the arguments that each party was making in its most extreme form,” said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice.
“I was impressed with the questions,” she went on. “I think they were fair questions, I think they were hard questions. I think the judges were wrestling with the right issues.”
