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An appellate court will hear arguments Tuesday in California over Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of illegally deploying the National Guard to quell anti-immigration enforcement protests and riots in Los Angeles County.
A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is set to decide whether Trump can continue to use thousands of National Guard members and hundreds of Marines to guard parts of the county.
The panel comprises two Trump appointees and one Biden appointee.
Hours after a lower court judge ruled in favor of Newsom last week and found that Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s deployment of National Guard soldiers was illegal, the three judges temporarily paused that decision.
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The panel will now decide if it wants to extend that pause.
In court papers, Department of Justice attorneys said Trump and Hegseth were using the military in California strictly to protect federal personnel and federal buildings.
They said the provision of Title 10 that Trump cited in a proclamation when he federalized the National Guard allows presidents to activate the soldiers without a governor’s consent.
Newsom fiercely opposed Trump federalizing guard members, and attorneys for California argued that the decision exacerbated the unrest and led to exponentially more rioting incidents. The attorneys said that regardless of the severity of the rioting, it did not “remotely” meet the criteria required under the Title 10 provision.
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“As the district court found based on the record evidence, the circumstances here do not remotely amount to a ‘rebellion or danger of a rebellion’ or a situation that renders the President ‘unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States,’” the attorneys wrote.
Since June 7, Trump has federalized 4,000 National Guard members and enlisted 700 Marines to offer support in California as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials carry out raids and arrest allegedly illegal immigrants, including dozens with criminal records.
An ICE official said in an affidavit that National Guard members have been “essential” to providing extra support around the 300 N. Los Angeles Federal Building, which has been the sight of frequent protests and unrest since the immigration raids began.
“Prior to the National Guard’s deployment, rioters and protestors assaulted federal, state, and local law enforcement officers with rocks, fireworks, and other objects. They also damaged federal property by spray painting death threats to federal law enforcement officers,” the ICE official wrote.
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