Gov. Newsom celebrates huge legal win: California National Guard returns to state control after court rejects federal takeover
Sacramento, California – After a long legal fight over who would oversee the California National Guard, state troops can now go home. This is because a federal judge ruled against the Trump administration’s activities. In late December, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Guard should be back under state control. This effectively ended what California officials called an illegal federal takeover.
The ruling came after the Trump administration gave up in court, which meant that an earlier order that said the deployment had to end could go into force. A federal judge gave that order earlier this month. It told the administration to stop controlling the Guard, which had been sent to an American city to fight American residents.
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The appeal court’s decision removed the last barrier, terminating the government role for good.
Governor Gavin Newsom strongly disagreed with the conclusion, claiming that the ruling of the court backed up what the state had said from the start.
“I’m glad President Trump has finally admitted defeat: we’ve said all along the federalization of the National Guard in California is illegal,” Newsom said.
“The President deployed these brave men and women against their own communities and without regard for the constitution and federal law. We welcome our California National Guard servicemembers back to state service, where they can continue to serve and protect the people of California — long delayed due to Trump’s political theater. I direct California National Guard leadership to work expeditiously to return state service members home to be with their families as soon as possible following their demobilization from federal service,” Governor Gavin Newsom added.
The governor told the Guard’s leaders to rapidly demobilize federal personnel and send them home now that the Guard was back under state control. He emphasized that the most important thing right now is to get soldiers back with their families and let them go back to their normal jobs of serving and protecting Californians under state authority.
The result in California also happens in a larger legal context. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled 6–3 in a different but related case in favor of the State of Illinois. This strengthened constraints on federal control over state National Guard units. The rulings together are a strong rejection of the federal approach and a clear reaffirmation of state autonomy, bringing a difficult chapter to a close.
