Just hours after U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration concerning the President’s decision to federalize 4,000 California Army National Guard soldiers, instructing that Trump must revert control of the Guard back to California, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals halted enforcement of the order pending a hearing.
Newsom quickly unpinned his celebratory post from X.
Hi @GavinNewsom, why did you just unpin this post? 😂
Before and after: pic.twitter.com/k7tavoR9MC
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 13, 2025
The three-judge panel is made up of two Trump appointees (Mark Bennett and Eric Miller) and one Biden appointee (Jennifer Sung).
BREAKING: 9th Circuit panel grants an administrative stay of Judge Breyer’s ruling. This decision allows Trump to maintain the National Guard’s deployment for a few more days while the three-judge panel reviews the case. pic.twitter.com/AHvjkfTxpT
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 13, 2025
As my colleague Joe Cunningham wrote, Judge Breyer found Trump’s actions violated federal law in three ways:
No Legal Justification: Trump cited a 1903 statute permitting the federalization of the National Guard only during a foreign invasion, rebellion against the U.S. government, or a presidential inability to enforce federal laws. The court determined that none of these conditions were satisfied, conducting an in-depth analysis to demonstrate that the Los Angeles protests did not constitute “rebellion” under the law’s historical interpretation.
Procedural Violations: Federal law requires federalization orders to be issued “through the governors of the States.” Trump’s administration argued they complied by typing “THROUGH: THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA” on orders never sent to Newsom. The court rejected this interpretation by saying Newsom only learned of the federalization when his adjutant general forwarded him the orders.
Constitutional Violations: The unlawful seizure violated the Tenth Amendment by preventing California from using its Guard for legitimate state purposes like fighting wildfires and combating fentanyl trafficking.
Editor’s Note: President Trump isn’t going to allow lawlessness to reign in America. We will not have a repeat of 2020’s “Summer of Love.”
