Court allows National Guard in LA as Dodgers repel feds

What happened

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Thursday night that President Donald Trump could continue his controversial National Guard deployment in Los Angeles, indefinitely blocking a lower court ruling that would have returned control of the Guard to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Trump sent in 4,100 Guard members and 700 Marines in response to ongoing protests of ICE raids. The Los Angeles Dodgers said Thursday they had "denied entry" to "ICE agents" seeking access to Dodger Stadium.

Who said what

"Federal immigration agents in a line of unmarked white vans and SUVs attempted to enter" first one, then a second Dodgers parking lot gate Thursday morning, but did not gain entry, the Los Angeles Times said. Protesters showed up, then the L.A. Police Department, after which the federal agents drove away. ICE said on X it was "never there" and a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Customs and Border Protection officials were at the stadium parking lot "very briefly" but it was "unrelated to any operation or enforcement."

At least some of the federal vehicles "were believed to have been involved in an immigration raid at a Home Depot" earlier in the morning, the Times said, and one migrant advocate at the stadium said a CBP officer told her they had brought the "detainees here to process them." The Dodgers, whose "fan base includes a significant Latino contingent," have come under criticism for "not speaking out publicly" against the ICE raids, Reuters said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The appellate panel said Trump was likely to be able to show he had enough cause to nationalize the National Guard over Newsom's objections, but they added that courts could still step in if the president's deployment decision was "obviously absurd or made in bad faith." Trump's order "isn't limited to California, and could be applied to any state," The Wall Street Journal said.

What next?

Newsom could "ask a larger, 11-judge panel of the appeals court to take up the issue or seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court," Politico said, but "the Guard deployment could be over and the dispute could be moot" by the time another court weighs in.