Nov. 8 (UPI) — A federal judge issued a permanent injunction that prevents the deployment of the National Guard in Portland, Ore., saying Donald Trump “exceeded the President’s authority.”
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, in a 106-page decision Friday, wrote in all caps: “THIS PERMANENT INJUNCTION ORDER IS IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT.”
She issued a temporary restraining order on Oct. 4 blocking the deployment of the Oregon National Guard to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. One day later a second order blocked deployment of National Guard troops from other states to Portland streets.
“The evidence demonstrates that these deployments, which were objected to by Oregon’s governor and not requested by the federal officials in charge of protection of the ICE building, exceeded the president’s authority,” the judge, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, wrote.
Immergut, who made the decision after the three-day trial, said the troops were not needed to quell protests against Trump’s immigration policies.
“This Court arrives at the necessary conclusion that there was neither ‘a rebellion or danger of a rebellion’ nor was the President ‘unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States’ in Oregon when he ordered the federalization and deployment of the National Guard,” Immergut wrote.
She said a stay of federalization of Oregon troops will last 14 days that “preserves the status quo in which National Guard members have been federalized but not deployed.”
Starting in early June, there were daily demonstrations outside ICE’s building in Portland. They have been small and peaceful and dispersed when federal agents in riot gear came to the scene, The New York Times reported.
Sometimes federal officers used tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray balls.
Immergut said she expects the decision to be appealed with the White House not responding to a request for comment Friday night.
“The ‘precise standard’ to demarcate the line past which conditions would satisfy the statutory standard to deploy the military in the streets of American cities is ultimately a question for a higher court to decide,” she wrote.
During the trial, federal lawyers said they intended to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.
On Sept. 27, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he planned to use “full force” to protect “war-ravaged Portland.”
The next day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek to activate 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to protect federal property. Kotek refused and Trump federalized the troops.
Under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, a president may use the National Guard on U.S. soil in only three situations: a foreign invasion; a rebellion or threat of a rebellion; or laws of the nation cannot be enforced with existing resources.
The Trump administration argued the last two conditions were met. The judge disagreed.
“Oregon National Guard members have been away from their jobs and families for 38 days,” Kotek, a Democrat, said after the ruling on the lawsuit by the state and city. ” The California National Guard has been here for just over one month. Based on this ruling, I am renewing my call to the Trump Administration to send all troops home now.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the decision involving his state’s troops “a win for the rule of law, for the constitutional values that govern our democracy, and for the American people.”
Trump has sought to send troops into Democrat-run cities. Another judge has blocked troops from Chicago after a lawsuit and that decision has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Troops have been sent to the District of Columbia, Los Angeles and Memphis, Tenn., to assist ICE and/or reduce crime.