Court lets Trump keep control of California national guard
Date: 2025-06-20T10:08:47.000Z
Title: Court lets Trump keep control of California national guard for now
Content: Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I'm Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you the news over the next few hours.
We start with the news that a US appeals court let Donald Trump retain control on Thursday of California's national guard while the state's Democratic governor proceeds with a lawsuit challenging the Republican president's use of the troops to quell protests in Los Angeles.
Trump's decision to send troops into Los Angeles prompted a national debate about the use of the military on US soil and inflamed political tension in the country's second most-populous city.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit court of appeals extended its pause on U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's 12 June ruling that Trump had unlawfully called the national guard into federal service.
Trump probably acted within his authority, the panel said, adding that his administration probably complied with the requirement to coordinate with Governor Gavin Newsom, and even if it did not, he had no authority to veto Trump's directive.
'And although we hold that the president likely has authority to federalize the national guard, nothing in our decision addresses the nature of the activities in which the federalized national guard may engage,' it wrote in its opinion.
Newsom could still challenge the use of the national guard and U.S. Marines under other laws, including the bar on using troops in domestic law enforcement, it added. The governor could raise those issues at a court hearing on Friday in front of Breyer, it said.
In a post on X after the decision, Newsom vowed to pursue his challenge.
'The president is not a king and is not above the law,' he said. 'We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump's authoritarian use of US military soldiers against our citizens.'
Trump hailed the decision in a post on Truth Social. 'This is a great decision for our country and we will continue to protect and defend law-abiding Americans,' he said.
'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.'
In other news:
The Los Angeles Dodgers said they blocked US immigration enforcement agents from accessing the parking lot at Dodger Stadium on Thursday and got into public back-and-forth statements with Ice and the Department of Homeland Security, which denied their agents were ever there.
The Department of Homeland Security is now requiring lawmakers to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers, according to new guidance. The guidance comes after a slew of tense visits from Democratic lawmakers to detention centers amid Trump's crackdowns in immigrant communities across the country.
A federal judge on Thursday blocked Trump's administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding. Chief US district judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, granted the states' request for an injunction barring the Department for Transportation's policy, saying the states were likely to succeed on the merits of some or all of their claims.
The office of the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, requested 'a passive approach to Juneteenth messaging', according to an exclusive Rolling Stone report citing a Pentagon email. The messaging request for Juneteenth – a federal holiday commemorating when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free – was transmitted by the Pentagon's office of the chief of public affairs. This office said it was not poised to publish web content related to Juneteenth, Rolling Stone reported.
Depending on who you ask, between 4 and 6 million people showed up to last weekend's 'No Kings' protests. Now the real number is becoming clearer, with one estimate suggesting that Saturday was among the biggest.
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DHS policy disqualifies any job-seekers who have used a substance classified as a Schedule I drug – which the tea contains – within the three years preceding their submission of an employment application. In 2006, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of UDV members to import and use ayahuasca, which contains the powerful hallucinogen DMT, ending a years-long dispute between the church and the federal government. The UDV uses a tea called hoasca, or, ayahuasca, as a religious sacrament, Reis' complaint explains. Ayahuasca tea is prepared by brewing two plants together with water, one of which contains dimethyltryptamine – DMT – a drug regulated under the Controlled Substances Act. However, the Department of Homeland Security, of which CBP is a component agency, still considers the drug's use to be disqualifying, even though Reis emphasized that she did so 'for spiritual purposes only,' according to her suit, which names Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem as the sole defendant. 'Her religious practice is recognized as something very similar to Native Americans with peyote,' attorney Kevin Owen, one of the lawyers representing Reis, told The Independent. 'We think that DHS has made a wrong decision here, and that our client shouldn't have been denied a job with CBP just because of her religious observance.' Owen said that UDV's ayahuasca use is a 'bona fide' spiritual custom, and that the Trump administration has professed a strong commitment to religious accommodation – which is what Reis, who was turned down by CBP under the Biden administration, is now seeking. In May, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order establishing a so-called Religious Liberty Commission, intended to guard against 'threats' to unfettered religious practice. 'It shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce the historic and robust protections for religious liberty enshrined in Federal law,' Trump's EO read. 'The Founders envisioned a Nation in which religious voices and views are integral to a vibrant public square and human flourishing and in which religious people and institutions are free to practice their faith without fear of discrimination or hostility from the Government.' According to Owen, there are very few cases that are as clear-cut as the one he and co-counsel Gary Gilbert and Brian Sutherland are bringing on behalf of Reis. 'A lot of times, it's muddier, or a bit grey,' he said. 'I don't think the facts here will be in dispute.' CBP and a spokesperson from Noem's office did not respond to requests for comment. Reis was born in Espirito Santo, Brazil and became a naturalized American citizen in 2009. She became a devoted follower of UDV, which was founded in Brazil in 1961 and now includes more than 21,000 adherents in 11 countries, about 10 years ago, according to her complaint. Reis' congregation in Boca Raton, Florida, meets biweekly, usually on the first and third Saturdays of the month, although it 'sometimes holds extra services,' the complaint goes on. 'Like the other members of the UDV, Ms. Reis participates in the sacramental use of ayahuasca when she attends UDV services,' it says. 'When she drinks ayahuasca tea, she feels the effect of DMT, the active psychotropic ingredient, but she drinks it only for sacramental purposes.' The UDV's use of ayahuasca is legal under federal law, which provides an exemption under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, according to the complaint. In October 2018, some three years after Reis joined the UDV, Reis applied for a position as a CBP officer. On December 4, 2018, the complaint says she received a provisional employment offer from CBP at the GS-7 pay rate, which comes with a starting salary of just over $40,000. To complete the process, Reis would be required to undergo a pre-employment procedure consisting of a medical exam, fitness exam, drug test, structured interview, polygraph exam and background investigation, the complaint states, noting that Reis successfully passed the medical and fitness exams, along with the interview. Next, Reis was scheduled to sit for the polygraph, known colloquially as a 'lie detector test,' which she did in March 2021, according to the complaint. 'Ms. Reis was asked several questions about drug use during the exam,' the complaint states. 'When the polygraph examiner asked her about [her] use of psychoactive substances, she disclosed her membership in the UDV and explained her religious use of ayahuasca.' The polygraph examiner asked 'extensive questions' about the UDV, all of which Reis answered fully, and later told her she 'was doing well,' the complaint contends. 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'When we went thru the EEOC process and got an administrative decision that wasn't what we had hoped for, we figured we had to go to district court,' Owen, Reis' the attorney, told The Independent. 'She has a sincerely held religious belief, and therefore it's going to be covered by Title VII.' On Monday, one day before Reis filed suit, the Trump administration further expanded religious liberties for government workers, allowing federal personnel to proselytize on the job. 'Federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career,' U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said in a press release. 'This guidance ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law but welcoming to Americans of all faiths. Under President Trump's leadership, we are restoring constitutional freedoms and making government a place where people of faith are respected, not sidelined.' The federal government 'is supposed to be a model employer,' according to Owen, noting that he hopes Reis' lawsuit will spur wider changes for public-sector workers. 'Our client wants to make this situation a case not only vindicating her rights, but also for other people to make sure their religious practices aren't violated under the law,' Owen said. Reis says in her suit that she has suffered 'emotional distress, inconvenience, humiliation, and other indignities' as a result of the 'discriminatory conduct' by CBP and DHS. She is now seeking damages, to be determined by a jury, for lost wages and benefits, compensatory damages, and punitive damages, plus attorney's fees and court costs.
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