Judge rules Trump exceeded authority in National Guard deployment to Portland
A federal judge has permanently blocked President Donald Trump’s order to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, ruling that he overstepped his presidential authority.
In a 106-page decision issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut — a Trump appointee — concluded that the deployment “exceeded the President’s authority” and violated federal law, making permanent an injunction she had issued last month, News.Az reports, citing ABC News.
“The evidence demonstrates that these deployments, which were objected to by Oregon’s governor and not requested by federal officials in charge of protecting the ICE building, exceeded the president’s authority,” Immergut wrote.
The ruling follows a three-day trial in which the court rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the immigration-related protests in Portland constituted a “rebellion” — the legal threshold required to justify federalizing a state’s National Guard.
Immergut emphasized that while presidents have broad discretion in such matters, there was no lawful basis for Trump’s decision to federalize Oregon’s National Guard in September.
The president’s move came amid months of protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland. Oregon’s governor and city leaders had strongly opposed the deployment, calling it an overreach of federal power.
“Even giving great deference to the President’s determination, the President did not have a lawful basis to federalize the National Guard,” Immergut wrote.
The City of Portland and the State of Oregon jointly sued to block the deployment, leading to Friday’s decision. The judge acknowledged the significance of the case, noting that the question of when a president can lawfully deploy the military domestically “is ultimately one for a higher court to decide.”
Trump’s similar efforts to send Guard troops into Chicago were also blocked by the courts earlier this year, citing a lack of evidence of rebellion or insurrection.
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