President Donald Trump on Friday thanked an appeals court for its ruling allowing him to keep the California National Guard deployed in Los Angeles.
“The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe,” Trump posted on his Truth Social page. “If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit late Thursday granted the Trump administration’s motion for a stay of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, reports The Washington Post on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Breyer said the president had acted illegally by dispatching the California National Guard to Los Angeles in response to the protests there against Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions.
By dispatching the Guard, Breyer ruled, Trump had acted improperly, “both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He ordered the president to relinquish control of the troops to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The judge stayed his order until noon Friday, but the government immediately filed the notice of an appeal, with the court quickly granting the motion for a stay and scheduling a hearing for Tuesday.
Breyer’s ruling came after California filed a lawsuit against Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the Defense Department, seeking to restrict the National Guard and Marines to protect only federal facilities and personnel in Los Angeles while restricting other activities.
The lawsuit also questioned Trump’s right to deploy the National Guard and Marines in California without input or consent from the governor.