Setback for Donald Trump as US federal court blocks sending National Guard to Portland
A US federal judge has given a temporary setback to President Donald Trump as she blocked him from deploying 200 Oregon National Guard troops to the city of Portland, for now.
The White House reacted to the ruling and said that the Donald Trump administration expects to be “vindicated by a higher court”.(REUTERS File)
The ruling by District Judge Karin Immergut in Portland on Saturday is a bigger setback for Trump, as he appointed her during his first term. Trump has been trying to dispatch the military to cities he describes as lawless over the objections of their Democratic leaders.
The ruling blocked the Republican leader from sending troops at least until October 18. The judge said that there was no evidence that recent protests rose to the level of a rebellion or seriously interfered with law enforcement.
“The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts,” Immergut wrote, Reuters reported.
The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal to the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals late Saturday.
While Trump described the city as “war-ravaged,” lawyers from the Oregon attorney general’s office have said that protests in Portland were “small and sedate.
According to the lawyers fighting Trump’s bid, the protests resulted in only 25 arrests in mid-June and no arrests in the three and a half months since June 19.
The White House reacted to the ruling and said that the administration expects to be “vindicated by a higher court”.
“President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement — we expect to be vindicated by a higher court,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said at a press conference that his city was peaceful and “this narrative was manufactured.”
What Oregon argued before the court against Donald Trump’s National Guard bid
Oregon had asked the court to declare the deployment illegal and block it from going forward, saying Donald Trump was exaggerating the threat of protests against his immigration policies to justify illegally seizing control of state National Guard units.
Oregon’s lawsuit said Trump announced the troop deployment after Fox News showed video clips from “substantially larger and more turbulent protests” in Portland in 2020.
The state argued that Trump’s deployment violates several federal laws and the state’s sovereign right to police its own citizens. According to the lawsuit, Trump’s decision to send troops only to “disfavored” Democratic cities like Portland also violates the states’ rights under the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Trump has already sent the National Guard to police Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and has said he would send troops to several other cities
