U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction sought be California officials who opposed President Donald Trump’s extraordinary move to use state Guard troops without Gov. Gavin Newsom's approval to further Trump's immigration enforcement efforts. But Breyer also put the decision on hold until Monday.
The administration initially called up more than 4,000 California National Guard troops but that number had dropped to several hundred by late October. About 100 Guard members remained in the Los Angeles area as of Friday, with none on the streets, according to U.S. Northern Command.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson suggested the administration would appeal, saying in a statement that it looked forward to "ultimate victory on the issue.”
Breyer rejected the administration's arguments that he could not review extensions of a Guard deployment and that it still needed Guard troops in Los Angeles to carry out federal law, saying the first claim was “shocking” and the second one bordered on “misrepresentation.”
“The Founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances,” he wrote. “Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one.”
U.S. Justice Department lawyers said the administration still needed Guard members in the Los Angeles area to help protect federal personnel and property.
