Oregon judge temporarily blocks deployment of the National Guard to Portland

A federal judge in Oregon has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from sending the National Guard to Portland after the president said he would send troops to the city to handle “domestic terrorists.” 

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, issued the temporary restraining order, which is set to expire on Oct. 18, according to court records.

The plaintiffs say a deployment would violate the U.S. Constitution as well as a federal law that generally prohibits the military from being used to enforce domestic laws.

Immergut wrote that the case involves the intersection of three fundamental democratic principles: “the relationship between the federal government and the states, between the military and domestic law enforcement, and the balance of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

“Whether we choose to follow what the Constitution mandates with respect to these three relationships goes to the heart of what it means to live under the rule of law in the United States,” she wrote.

Generally speaking the president is allowed “a great level of deference” to federalize National Guard troops in situations where regular law enforcement forces are not able to execute the laws of the United States, the judge said. 

However, she concluded that in the situation in Portland, the president “did not have a ‘colorable basis’ to invoke § 12406(3) to federalize the National Guard because the situation on the ground belied an inability of federal law enforcement officers to execute federal law.”

Plaintiffs were able to show that the demonstrations at the Portland immigration facility were not significantly violent or disruptive in the days or weeks leading up to the president’s order, the judge wrote, and “overall, the protests were small and uneventful.”

The judge added that, “The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.”

The Defense Department had said it was placing 200 members of Oregon’s National Guard under federal control for 60 days to protect federal property and personnel at locations where protests are occurring or likely to occur after Trump called the city “war-ravaged.”

The state of Oregon filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Sunday following the president’s announcement that he would send troops to Portland. The lawsuit argued that Mr. Trump lacks the authority to federalize the National Guard. 

“Oregon communities are stable, and our local officials have been clear: we have the capacity to manage public safety without federal interference,” state Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has pushed back on Mr. Trump’s plans to send troops to Portland and told reporters at a news conference last week that the city “is a far cry from the war-ravaged community he has posted on social media.”

Earlier in September, Mr. Trump had described living in Portland as “like living in hell.” 

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland has been the site of nightly protests, and the demonstrations and occasional clashes with law enforcement.

A handful of immigration and legal advocates often gather at the building during the day. At night, recent protests have typically drawn a couple dozen people.

The order Saturday comes after a broader effort from the administration in what Mr. Trump has characterized as a crackdown on crime in Democratic-led cities. 

Mr. Trump deployed the National Guard and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in the District of Columbia. 

On Saturday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said that the Trump administration intends to federalize 300 Illinois National Guard members after he was offered an ultimatum to deploy the troops himself but refused.

Last month, Mr. Trump signed a presidential memorandum mobilizing federal law enforcement agents to Memphis, Tennessee, at the request of the Tennessee governor.