Los Angeles – Es war ein Präzedenzfall mit Ansage: Am 19. Juni 2025 entschied der 9. US-Berufungsgerichtshof (9th Circuit) im Verfahren Newsom v. Trump Los Angeles – It was a precedent with a warning: On June 19, 2025, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case Newsom v. Trump (Docket No. 25‑3727) that President Donald Trump may, for now, retain control over the California National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles. With this, the three-judge panel unanimously overturned a previous decision by federal judge Charles R. Breyer, who had found that Trump clearly violated the constitutional separation of powers by assuming control without the consent of Governor Gavin Newsom. No president since 1965 had mobilized a state’s National Guard against the explicit will of its governor. But under Trump, the unthinkable has become routine.
The judges – Mark J. Bennett and Eric D. Miller, both appointed by Trump, and Jennifer Sung, nominated by President Biden – based their decision on federal statute 10 U.S.C. § 12406. According to the law, the president may assume control of the Guard even when there is merely a “threat of rebellion.” For the court, reports of alleged attacks on federal officers by protesters, damaged vehicles, and temporarily closed government buildings sufficed. This classification as a “significant threat” was deemed enough – even though Judge Breyer had previously argued that the protests in Los Angeles did not amount to rebellion but rather constituted legitimate civil disobedience. That Trump, under the law, must notify the governor before taking control was poorly executed at best – but according to the judges, Newsom had no actual right to intervene in any case.
The consequences of this decision reach far beyond California. Critics see it as a dangerous signal: that the federal government, citing vague threats, may override a state’s sovereignty at any time. What was once a balance is tipping further in favor of a presidential executive that increasingly positions itself as the ultimate force of order. Trump celebrated the ruling on Truth Social as a “BIG WIN.” Newsom, by contrast, described it as an “authoritarian misuse of the military against American citizens.” And in the country’s law schools, a new debate is beginning: How much democracy remains when the president shows up in uniform?
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