Appeals Court Rules Trump Overstepped His Authority in Federalizing California’s National Guard

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 24 (TodayViralUSA) — A federal appeals court has ruled that President Trump exceeded his legal authority when he federalized thousands of California National Guard troops and sent them into Los Angeles in June 2025, handing Gov. Gavin Newsom a significant win in one of the defining legal fights over the administration’s use of the military at home.

In a 2-1 decision filed Friday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower-court order barring the deployment of California Guard members in Los Angeles and directing that control of the Guard be returned to the governor.

The court’s reasoning

The case turns on 10 U.S.C. § 12406, a law that lets the president call a state’s Guard into federal service only under specific conditions, such as an invasion, a rebellion or danger of rebellion, or when the president is unable to execute federal law with regular forces. The administration invoked the statute to federalize 4,000 California Guard members for 60 days during protests and unrest in Los Angeles.

Writing for the majority, Judge Jennifer Sung said a president’s decision that one of those conditions exists is subject to judicial review. That review is “highly deferential,” the court said, but judges must at minimum ask whether the determination reflects “a colorable assessment of the facts and law within a range of honest judgment.”

The panel found the administration failed on both grounds it relied on. Applying the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Trump v. Illinois, it held the government had not made the threshold showings needed to use the “unable to execute the laws” provision. And it concluded that California was likely to succeed in arguing that describing conditions in Los Angeles on June 7, 2025, as a “rebellion or danger of a rebellion” did not meet even that deferential standard.

As a result, the court said, the federalization order “exceeded the President’s statutory authority and encroached on Congress’s calling forth power.”

A divided panel

Judge Eric Miller wrote a concurrence, and Judge Mark Bennett dissented. The court also rejected the administration’s attempt to withdraw its appeal of the original temporary restraining order, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office.

Reaction and next steps

Bonta and Newsom welcomed the decision, saying it confirmed the administration acted unlawfully. The administration can ask the full Ninth Circuit to rehear the case or seek review from the Supreme Court, which has already weighed in on the limits of the same statute in the Illinois case.