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Federal appeals court maintains Trump’s federalization of Calif. National Guard

By Kenneth Schrupp
The Center Square 

The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a temporary stay, maintaining President Donald Trump’s federalization of the California National Guard hours after a district court judge issued a restraining order requiring the president to transfer command back to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

Just hours earlier, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer had issued a temporary restraining order against the president’s command of the National Guard, finding conditions failed to meet the standard of insurrection or inability to execute laws, and that the president’s order violated the Tenth Amendment by interfering with state police powers and resources. 

But as Newsom held a victory press conference and went on the offensive, saying Trump “creates a problem, and then tries to be a hero in his own Marvel movie” and as his office posted a GIF of the Death Star’s destruction in a Star Wars film, the Trump administration quietly struck back by immediately filing a 324-page appeal.

Responding to Breyer’s first claims, the Trump appeal said that local law enforcement’s inability to control the large number of protestors “constitute a rebellion against federal authority, and have impeded the ability of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and other federal officials to enforce federal law.” 

The appeal then noted the Supreme Court has found that the president has final say over when an emergency has risen that may require military forces, and pushed back claims that orders for federalization must allow the governor of a state to “provide or withhold his consent.” 

“Nothing in the statute requires the Governor's consent to mobilization – a legal theory that would have empowered the Governor of Arkansas to block President Eisenhower from deploying the National Guard to desegregate Arkansas' public school,” noted the appeal.

The 9th Circuit’s order granting a stay on Breyer’s ruling included notice that a panel of the 9th Circuit will hold a hearing on the matter at noon on June 17.

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