A divided federal appeals court ruled on Oct. 23 that President Donald Trump lacked legal authority to federalize 4,000 California National Guard troops in June 2025 and deploy them to Los Angeles to deal with civil unrest.
The 2–1 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the federal government’s characterization of the sometimes violent protests during Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the region as a rebellion that justified federal involvement to restore order.
Because Title 10 of the U.S. Code did not authorize “the President’s initial federalization order, the order exceeded the President’s statutory authority and encroached on Congress’s calling forth power, in violation of the constitutional separation of powers. Therefore, the order was ultra vires and unconstitutional,” the panel said.
The panel also found that the plaintiffs—California and Gov. Gavin Newsom—were likely to succeed on their claim that the conditions in Los Angeles did not constitute “a rebellion or danger of rebellion” within the meaning of the federal statute.
Trump ended the deployment in December 2025.
Although the federal Posse Comitatus Act restricts the ability of the federal government to use military resources for domestic law enforcement, a president may take over, or federalize, state National Guard troops on an emergency basis under certain circumstances. The president has federalized troops in various cities to deal with violence that he said was interfering with the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration law.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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