UPDATE, 9:16 PM: Gavin Newsom’s renewed control of the California National Guard didn’t last more than a few hours thanks to a federal appeals court.

“The request for an administrative stay is GRANTED,” the court wrote in a short order tonight after the White House and DOJ came up short this afternoon in their bid to maintain a hold on the unrequested and widely seen as unnecassary troop deployment. “The district court’s June 12 temporary restraining order is temporarily stayed pending further order,” a three-judge panel of two Trump appointees and one Joe Biden appointee said.

All of which has put the brakes on returning control of the Guard that Trump federalized on June 7 to Gov. Newsom at noon on June 13. It gives Trump at least one more hot weekend to inflame the situation on the ground in L.A. with more immigration enforcement raids. The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals trio has now set a June 17 Zoom hearing on the matter.

In response to anti-ICE raids protests that started late last week there are currently 4,000 National Guard troops in the City of Angels with 700 Marines in the mix too. A portion of DTLA around federal buildings, City Hall, some courthouses, art galleries and entertainment venues has been under curfew for the past few days and is to remain so from dusk-to-dawn  indefinitely at this point. Each night since the curfew was put in place in the sanctuary city by Mayor Karen Bass, the LAPD have been arresting protesters and others who remain in the area.

Before the Appeals Court ruling flipped the script on Newsom, the Governor was having media victory dance at longtime foil Trump’s expense.

“Today was really about a test of democracy, and today we passed the test,” he said in a short press conference Thursday evening when it looked like he was back in charge of the Guard.

Not for the first time, Newsom took aim at Trump’s claims that L.A. was going to erupt in rioting and chaos if he hadn’t taken over the Guard and called them up as ICE protection. “This is what Donald Trump does,” the two-term Democrat and potential 2028 White House contender added. “He creates a problem — and then he tries to be a hero in his own Marvel movie. I would call it pathetic if it wasn’t so dangerous.”

PREVIOUSLY, 6:14 PM: Donald Trump has just been ordered by a federal judge to “return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.” Forthwith meaning in practical terms means noon PT Friday with even more orders from the bench to possible follow.

In an order handed down Thursday just a couple of hours after a pitched hearing in San Francisco between Department of Justice lawyers and Golden State attorneys, Judge Charles Breyer awarded Gavin Newsom the temporary restraining order he sought over Trump’s federalization of the California National Guard on June 7 after protests over ICE raids of undocumented immigrants in and around L.A.

“At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions,” the judge wrote in a 36-page order this evening. “He did not.” The Bill Clinton appointed judge added: “His actions were illegal — both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Noting the standard required for such a big reach by the Executive Branch and the reality of the mainly passionate but peaceful protests over ICE in LA, the judge said the gatherings around federal buildings and immigration enforcement “in Los Angeles fall far short of rebellion.”

Read The Judge’s Order For Trump To Return Control Of The National Guard To Newsom Here

Newsom and the state Attorney General first filed suit against Trump, Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth and others in the administration on June 9. The gist of their argument was that the president overstepped his authority when he dispatched National Guard troops to the region to respond to protests of ICE immigration raids late last week by heavily armed masked agents. The governor said the president violated the law by not consulting with him first before the deployment.

On June 11, Newsom upped the ante and demanded a TRO to halt “ongoing and unnecessary militarization of Los Angeles” and Trump’s brazen authoritarian tactics ASAP. Trump’s DOJ lawyers pushed to have the 1 p.m. PT deadline set by the governor delayed, and Judge Breyer (brother of Clinton appointed Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired in 2022) agreed. He required more briefings from both sides and set a hearing on the matter for today at 1:30 p.m. PT.

A hearing in which federal lawyers often seemed not to know their own argument or the facts to back it up.

Having already warned on “a monarchy” in the hearing earlier today, Breyer worried in his order this evening that “Defendants’ actions also threaten to chill legitimate First Amendment expression.” To that, and with the overriding Constitutional and jurisdictional issues at play, he laid out exactly what’s next for Newsom and Trump with this halting of military deployment to America’s second-largest city:

For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order:
Defendants are temporarily ENJOINED from deploying members of the California National Guard in Los Angeles.

Defendants are DIRECTED to return control of the California National Guard to Governor Newsom. 
The Court further STAYS this order until noon on June 13, 2025.

Plaintiffs are ORDERED to post a nominal bond of $100 within 24 hours. The bond shall be filed in the Clerk’s Office and be deposited into the registry of the Court. If said bond is not posted by the aforementioned date and time, this Order shall be dissolved.

Defendants are further ORDERED TO SHOW CAUSE why a preliminary injunction should not issue. A hearing on this order to show cause will be held on June 20, 2025 at 10 a.m. Plaintiffs’ moving papers shall be filed no later than June 16, 2025; Defendants’ opposition shall be due no later than June 18, 2025, and Plaintiffs’ reply shall be due on June 19, 2025.

Whether or not this White House complies with Breyer’s order is another matter. For one thing, almost immediately after Judge Breyer’s order hit the docket, Trump’s DOJ filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit court.

Earlier today, after the hearing before Judge Breyer ended and before his order was made public, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to take more factually inaccurate potshots at Newsom or Newscum as he says:

Less than two hours before today’s hearing, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared to be backing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s avoidance of a congressional hearing in Washington, DC earlier in the day of whether or not the administration would respect court orders over its use of troops in Los Angeles.

“We are not going away,” Noem said at the same L.A. press conference where federal agents shockingly assaulted Sen. Alex Padilla, handcuffed and dragged him away for trying to ask the DHS chief a question. “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city,” Noem added with a reference to California and L.A.’s “sanctuary” policies that prevent state and civic participation in federal immigration raids and detentions.

Also, Thursday LA Mayor Karen Bass gave much more heated remarks than is usual for the circumspect politician in talking about the continued ICE rounding up of residents and the 4,000 Guard troops and 700 Marines on the streets in and around federal buildings and more. “No matter what happens out of the White House,” the much Trump attacked Bass said today, as DTLA went under another night of dusk-to-dawn curfew. “We will always uphold and reflect what Los Angeles and the United States are truly about: freedom, tolerance and, for God’s sake, our Constitution.”

Almost as fast on the social media draw as Trump, Newsom went online soon after the order landed on the federal court docket. “The court just confirmed what we all know — the military belongs on the battlefield, not on our city streets,” the Governor posted with a copy of the order. “This win is not just for California, but the nation,” he said in his post. “It’s a check on a man whose authoritarian tendencies are increasing by the day. End the illegal militarization of Los Angeles now, @realDonaldTrump History is watching.”

Newsom later went before the cameras and said of Trump, among other things, “Today’s order makes clear that he is not above or beyond constitutional restraints.”