By Dietrich Knauth
(Reuters) -A federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked U.S. President Donald Trump from deploying 200 Oregon National Guard troops to the city of Portland while a lawsuit challenging the move plays out.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut in Portland is a setback for Trump as he seeks to dispatch the military to cities he describes as lawless over the objections of their Democratic leaders.
Immergut, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, blocked the Republican president from sending troops at least until October 18, saying there was no evidence that recent protests rose to the level of a rebellion or seriously interfered with law enforcement.
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,” resulting in only 25 arrests in mid-June and no arrests in the 3-1/2 months since June 19.
“The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts,” Immergut wrote.
The White House said it would appeal.
“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.”
PRESIDENT SENDING TROOPS TO DEMOCRATIC-LED CITIES
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. Earlier on Saturday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said in a social media post that Trump was preparing to send 300 National Guard troops to Chicago over his objections.
The Portland lawsuit was filed by Democratic Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield on September 28, a day after Trump said he would send troops to Portland to protect federal immigration facilities from “domestic terrorists.”
Oregon had asked the court to declare the deployment illegal and block it from going forward, saying 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. Trump’s decision to send troops only to “disfavored” Democratic cities like Portland also violates the state’s rights under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, according to the lawsuit.
JUDGE SAYS TRUMP CANNOT IGNORE THE FACTS ON THE GROUND
Immergut said on Saturday that Oregon was likely to succeed on its arguments that Trump illegally called up the National Guard and violated Oregon’s rights under the 10th Amendment.
Although the president must be given “a great level of deference” in military decisions, Trump cannot ignore the facts on the ground, Immergut wrote. Accepting Trump’s legal arguments would mean that he could “send military troops virtually anywhere at any time” and “risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power – to the detriment of this nation,” she added.
The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to Trump’s deployments of military forces to Democratic-led cities, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., which he has said were overrun with crime and hostile to immigration enforcement.
State and local Democratic leaders have disputed those claims and accused Trump of violating longstanding U.S. laws and norms against using the military for domestic law enforcement.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from using the military to fight crime in California on September 2, but that ruling is on hold while the administration appeals.
Washington, D.C.’s Democratic attorney general filed a lawsuit on September 4 to end Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital. A judge has yet to rule on the request.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Dietrich Knauth and Jack Queen in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Matthew Lewis and Jamie Freed)
