Portland, Ore.– President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday appealed a ruling by a federal judge in Oregon barring it from doing so Deployment of the National Guard To Portland.
Verdict last week From U.S. District Judge Karen Immergut, a Trump appointee, followed A Three-day trial The two sides argued over whether the protests at the city’s US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building met the requirements for using the military domestically under federal law. The city and state filed a lawsuit in September to block the publication.
In a 106 page opinionImmergut found that although the president was entitled to “substantial deference” in his decision to call in the Guard, he had no legal basis to do so because he had not proven the existence of mutiny or risk of mutiny, or that he was incapable of enforcing the law with regular forces.
The administration criticized the decision and said the troops were needed to protect federal employees and property in the city, which Trump described as “war-torn.”
“The district court’s ruling made clear that this administration must be accountable to the truth and the rule of law,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in an emailed statement Friday in response to the administration’s appeal. “We will continue to stand up for Oregon’s values and defend our state’s authority to make decisions based on evidence and common sense.”
Immergut issued two temporary restraining orders in early October, preventing the deployment of troops leading up to the trial. The first order prevented Trump from deploying 200 National Guard members to Oregon; The second order, issued the next day, prohibited him from deploying members of the National Guard to any state in Oregon, after he had tried to evade the first order by sending troops from California instead.
The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has already ordered that troops not be deployed pending further action by the appeals court.
Democratic cities that Trump has targeted for military intervention — including Chicago, which has filed a separate lawsuit over the issue now before the U.S. Supreme Court — It has been undone. They say the president has not met the legal threshold for deploying troops and that doing so would violate states’ sovereignty.