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A federal appeals court just handed President Trump a major win, clearing the way for National Guard troops to deploy to riot-torn Portland, Oregon, overriding a lower judge's desperate bid to stop him.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Monday to lift U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut's temporary restraining order blocking Trump's mobilization of Oregon National Guard forces.
The panel, Trump appointees Ryan Nelson and Danielle Forrest Bade, joined by Clinton appointee William Fletcher in dissent, declared Trump "lawfully exercised his statutory authority under 10 U.S.C. § 12406(3), which authorizes the federalization of the National Guard when 'the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.'"
Immergut, a Trump appointee herself, had issued the temporary restraining order on October 4, slamming the deployment as unlawful.
She extended it last week through October's end, warning it risked "send[ing] the country into a constitutional crisis."
The judge blasted Trump's portrayal of Portland as "war ravaged," calling it "simply untethered to the facts."
Police records showed protests as "small and sedate," with just 25 arrests in mid-June and none since June 19.
Trump fired back on September 27, ordering 200 Oregon troops to the city and vowing, "I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary."
To dodge Immergut's block, he activated hundreds of California National Guard troops and up to 400 from Texas for Portland, plus deployments to Illinois and other states amid violent anti-ICE riots.
Democratic leaders in Oregon sued, claiming Trump violated the Posse Comitatus Act barring military domestic law enforcement, the Tenth Amendment, and federal statutes by exaggerating protests to seize state Guards.
No district judge has ruled for Trump yet; Immergut joined two others blocking deployments, but appeals courts split.
The Ninth backed Trump in California; the Seventh upheld a Chicago block last Thursday.
During October 9 arguments, Nelson rebuked Immergut's narrow focus, contending, "Courts should not engage in a 'day by day' review of whether troops were needed at any given time."
Bade echoed that protests two months prior justified action.
In a parallel fight, Trump petitioned the Supreme Court Friday to greenlight Chicago troops.
The Seventh Circuit unanimously upheld the block, but Justice Amy Coney Barrett ordered Illinois to respond by Monday — no immediate stay.
Trump's extraordinary crackdown deploys Guards to Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Memphis, and now Portland and Chicago, blue strongholds erupting over his immigration crackdown.
City and state suits accuse him of illegally commandeering militias to suppress dissent.
Radical Democrats and their activist judges are weaponizing courts to handcuff a president enforcing law against anarchist mobs torching our cities.
Trump's victory exposes their sham: "small and sedate" riots? Tell that to burned businesses and bleeding cops.
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