A federal judge in Portland, Oregon, has rejected the Trump administration's request to immediately lift an order blocking the deployment of federalised National Guard troops to the city. Judge Karin Immergut stated she would decide the matter by Monday, following a virtual hearing on Friday.
The case is part of a series of legal battles over President Donald Trump's push to send military forces to Democratic-run cities. Immergut had previously issued two temporary restraining orders preventing the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland, citing a lack of factual basis for Trump's claim that the city was in a state of rebellion. The first order blocked 200 troops from the Oregon National Guard, and a second order barred troops from any state after Trump attempted to send in soldiers from California and Texas.
Although a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the first order on Monday, the second order remains in effect as the government did not appeal it. Immergut cited two reasons for delaying a decision: the appeals court did not address the government's attempt to evade her first order, and the Ninth Circuit is considering a rehearing before a larger panel.
On Friday, the Ninth Circuit paused the lifting of the first order until Tuesday evening, effectively blocking troop deployment for at least another four days. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, a separate hearing considered a request to remove over 2,000 National Guard members from the streets. The District of Columbia attorney general argued that the deployment, authorised by Trump's executive order declaring a crime emergency, was an unconstitutional occupation. Government lawyers countered that the president has authority over the DC National Guard and called the lawsuit a political stunt.
