'It went unheard': Expert says Trump ignored a court's 'warning not to overstep'
President Donald Trump touted his "big win" in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals over his federalization of the National Guard, but he neglected to mention one key provision that warned him to tread carefully, according to former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance.
Thursday night, the Ninth Circuit issued an emergency stay of a judge's order that control of the California National Guard should be returned to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
Newsom sued the government after Trump federalized the National Guard and sent troops to Los Angeles against Newsom's wishes, a move that hasn't happened in the United States since 1965.
Trump's victory post on Truth Social claimed, "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."
"Except that’s not exactly what the opinion said," Vance wrote in a new Substack article, stating, "The basis for their decision was more limited than the government’s broad claims of presidential power."
Vance conceded that the decision "is a win for Trump" but added that "the panel disagreed with him on a key issue."
In court, "Trump argued the courts have no ability to review his decision about whether to federalize the Guard," Vance wrote. But the court disagreed "with Defendants’ primary argument that the President’s decision to federalize members of the California National Guard...is completely insulated from judicial review.”
The ruling said “courts may at least review the President’s determination to ensure that it reflects a colorable assessment of the facts and law within a ‘range of honest judgment.’”
Vance called the court's language "a warning to the president not to overstep. But based on his social media post, it went unheard."
For now, "the California National Guard troops Trump federalized remain under his control pending the appeal in this case," Vance wrote.