Court Throws Out Ruling Backing Trump’s Portland National Guard Deployment

Judges on the Court of Appeals voted Tuesday to rehear a case over the deployment of Oregon’s National Guard.

The appeals court’s decision follows a ruling last week that allowed President Donald Trump to deploy 200 Oregon National Guard troops to Portland to protect law enforcement from violent rioters. By voting to rehear the case, the Ninth Circuit vacated that earlier decision and left the troops in legal limbo while the larger panel reviews the matter.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield praised the Ninth Circuit’s decision to take the National Guard case en banc, saying it affirms that the courts are holding the administration accountable. He said the ruling reinforces constitutional limits on presidential power and vowed to continue defending Oregon’s sovereignty as the case moves forward.

“This ruling shows the truth matters and that the courts are working to hold this administration accountable. The Constitution limits the president’s power, and Oregon’s communities cannot be treated as a training ground for unchecked federal authority,” Rayfield said.

National Guard troops deployed to Portland earlier this month to defend federal immigration facilities after Trump ordered the deployment following nearly five months of ongoing protests and violent confrontations between demonstrators and federal agents.

The state of Oregon and the city of Portland filed suit against the administration in late September after the Defense Department moved to federalize the Guard. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, blocked the move with two temporary restraining orders earlier this month.

Immergut first blocked the deployment of Oregon troops, then expanded her order after the administration redirected California soldiers to Portland to prohibit any National Guard deployment in the city. Immergut determined that the White House had not met the legal threshold to justify federalizing state troops.

However, on Oct. 20, a divided three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit overturned her decision, saying that while Trump may have overstated the situation, he could ultimately demonstrate that federal forces alone were insufficient to carry out immigration enforcement in Oregon.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Joe Gratz/Flickr)

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