A federal judge on Wednesday ordered an end to the National Guard’s deployment in Los Angeles and returned control of the troops to Governor Gavin Newsom.
It’s the latest victory for the California governor in court in his ongoing fight against President Donald Trump.
Judge Charles Breyer, a Bill Clinton appointee, temporarily prohibited the deployment of the state National Guard effective December 15 in a blistering opinion that ripped into the Trump administration.
“The Founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances. Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one,” Breyer wrote.
Breyer noted that six months after the California National Guard was first federalized, there are still approximately 300 guardsmen under federal control in the state, “despite no evidence that execution of federal law is impeded in any way.“
The court also directed that control of the California National Guard be turned back over to Newsom, noting that guardsmen were sent into other states “effectively creating a national police force made up of state troops.”
“Defendants take the position that, after a valid initial federalization, all subsequent re-federalizations are completely, and forever, unreviewable by the courts. Defendants’ position is contrary to law,” Breyer noted in granting the injunction.
Newsom’s office responded to the ruling with a post on X, calling it “another W for democracy. Another L for the rule of Don.”
The move to federalize the National Guard began as the Trump administration moved to carry out ICE immigration raids across Los Angeles in June.
Some 4,000 members of the National Guard were federalized, and the deployment began on June 8, despite pushback from state and local leaders. Newsom immediately sued.
While the administration declared its immigration activity in the state a success, and there was a drawdown of federalized troops over the summer, a new order federalized roughly 300 members of the California National Guard in August.
Another order was issued just as the previous one was set to expire to federalize the troops through February 2, 2026.
The judge on Wednesday blasted the Trump administration’s argument for the ongoing federalization of the National Guard, stating that after the initial federalization, “all extensions of federalization orders are utterly unreviewable, forever.”
“This is shocking,” Breyer wrote.
He wrote that it would “permit a president to create a perpetual police force comprised of state troops, so long as they were first federalized lawfully” and that it would validate the founders’ “widespread fear [of] a national standing Army.”
“Defendants’ argument for a president to hold unchecked power to control state troops would wholly upend the federalism that is at the heart of our system of government,” he wrote.
The senior judge for the Northern District of California also pointed out that the Trump administration’s own actions show they understood that re-federalization was required and would be reviewable.
Breyer also weighed how the decision would impact the public interest in the 35-page opinion and found it leaned in favor of Newsom.
He wrote that the court “notes that it is contrary to the public interest to have ‘militarized actors unfamiliar with local history and context’ roaming the streets.”
The Daily Beast asked the White House for a response.
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