June 20 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court ruled late Thursday that President Donald Trump may maintain control of thousands of National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles, a blow to the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who is fighting to keep the soldiers off his streets.
The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was unanimous, ruling that Trump's order federalizing members of the California National Guard was likely legal.
The court though disagreed with the Trump administration's argument that the president's decision to federalize the troops was insulated from judicial review but acknowledged that they must be "highly deferential" to it.
"Affording the President that deference, we conclude that it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority," the court said in its 38-page ruling, though it added "nothing in our decision addresses the nature of the activities in which the federalized National Guard may engage."
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The panel included two Trump-appointed judges, Mark Bennett and Eric Miller, and President Joe Biden appointee Jennifer Sung.
The ruling stays a lower court's order that had directed the Trump administration to remove the troops deployed to Los Angeles streets.
Trump celebrated the ruling as a "BIG WIN" on his Truth Social media platform.
"The Judges obviously realized that Gavin Newscum is incompetent and ill prepared, but this is much bigger than Gavin, because all over the United States ,if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable , for whatever reason to get the job done," Trump said in the post, referring to the California governor by an insulting moniker he invented.
Trump -- who campaigned on mass deportations while using incendiary and derogatory rhetoric as well as misinformation about immigrants -- has been leading a crackdown on immigration since returning to the White House.
On June 6, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began conducting raids in Los Angeles, prompting mass protests in the city.
In response, Trump deployed some 2,000 California National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to quell the demonstrations and to protect ICE agents performing immigration arrests. The number of troops deployed has since increased to 4,000, despite protests having abated.
The deployment was met with staunch opposition, criticism of Trump for continuing an extreme right-wing slide into authoritarianism and a lawsuit from Newsom, who was initially awarded a stay ordering the troops to be removed from the Los Angeles streets.
However, an appeals court hours later issued a preliminary injunction, which late Thursday was made a stay.
Newsom, in a statement, expressed disappointment over the ruling while highlighting the court's rejection of Trump's argument that his decision to deploy the troops is beyond judicial review.
"The President is not a king and is not above the law," Newsom said, vowing to continue to fight the deployment in court.
"We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump's authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens."
The deployment by Trump is the first by a president without a governor's permission since 1965.
