A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Trump's deployment of the California National Guard to Los Angeles, returning control to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, a Clinton appointee and brother of former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, ruled that Trump illegally kept about 100 troops deployed in Los Angeles months after sending troops amid violent protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this summer, The Hill news outlet reported.

“The Founders designed our government to be a system of checks and balances,” Breyer wrote in his opinion. “Defendants, however, make clear that the only check they want is a blank one.”

Breyer paused his ruling until Monday to give the Justice Department time to appeal, which the White House indicated that it plans to.

“President Trump exercised his lawful authority to deploy National Guard troops to support federal officers and assets following violent riots that local leaders like Newscum refused to stop,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “We look forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”

Trump deployed thousands of National Guardsmen to Los Angeles in the summer, resulting in a lawsuit from Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D).

The judge blocked Trump's initial deployment of the National Guard, but an appeals court later halted the ruling. However, most of the National Guardsmen have since been sent home.

Breyer’s Wednesday decision blocks Trump's extension that kept 300 California National Guardsmen under federal control until February. Only 100 remain in Los Angeles, as 200 were sent to Oregon.

“Once again, a court has firmly rejected the President’s attempt to make the National Guard a traveling national police force,” Bonta said in a statement.

“For more than five months, the Trump Administration has held California National Guard troops hostage as part of its political games. But the President is not King. And he cannot federalize the National Guard whenever, wherever, and for however long he wants, without justification. This is a good day for our democracy and the strength of the rule of law.”