Appeals court lets Trump control guardsmen deployed to Los Angeles

June 20 (UPI) – A federal appeals court ruled late Thursday that President Donald Trump may maintain control of thousands of National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles, a blow to the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who is fighting to keep the soldiers off his streets.

The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was unanimous, ruling that Trump's order federalizing members of the California National Guard was likely legal.

The court though disagreed with the Trump administration's argument that the president's decision to federalize the troops was insulated from judicial review but acknowledged that they must be "highly deferential" to it.

"Affording the President that deference, we conclude that it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority," the court said in its 38-page ruling, though it added "nothing in our decision addresses the nature of the activities in which the federalized National Guard may engage."

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/06/20/1611750393950/