Updated 1:03 pm October 15
A temporary restraining order prohibiting the deployment of National Guard troops to Oregon has been extended.
On Wednesday, October 15, US District Judge Karin Immergut extended the temporary restraining order (TRO) she’d granted on October 5 for another two weeks. The TRO was set to expire October 18.
The ruling comes as the state of Oregon is tangled up in a lawsuit against the federal government for President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops, to help guard the Portland ICE facility amid protests there. Oregon attorneys say the deployment is unnecessary and violates the US Constitution.
Judge Immergut’s ruling to grant the TRO earlier this month triggered an appeal from the federal government that is now being decided by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A decision in that appeal hasn’t been issued yet, the court did grant an administrative stay allowing troops to be federalized, but not deployed.
This story will be updated.
Original story:
Less than 24 hours after a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the deployment of Oregon’s National Guard to Portland, the same judge issued an additional restraining order to prevent troops from any other states from coming to Oregon.
On Saturday, US District Judge Karin Immergut granted the state of Oregon and city of Portland a restraining order to halt any deployment of Oregon National Guard troops until October 18. The state and city filed suit against the Trump administration after the president announced he was sending 200 Oregon National Guard troops to help guard the ICE facility in Portland. The facility has been the site of protests over heightened immigration enforcement.
In her decision Saturday, Immergut found the president doesn’t have the Constitutional authority to activate a state’s National Guard against that state’s will, and the president failed to provide truthful evidence of a threat in Portland big enough to warrant deployment of a militia against American citizens.
The following morning, in response to Saturday’s ruling, the Trump administration announced 300 California National Guard troops were activated and sent to Oregon. The move from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was an attempt to circumvent the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued Saturday.
Hours later, the state of California joined Oregon and Portland in an amended complaint requesting another TRO, “to prohibit the relocation or deployment of any National Guard under Defendants’ command… within the State of Oregon.”
In a Sunday evening teleconference hearing, Judge Immergut ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
Shortly before Sunday’s hearing, Hegseth issued a memo stating the Texas National Guard was being activated to deploy to Portland, and Illinois.
Earlier on Sunday, Portland City Councilor and US Army veteran Mitch Green joined other veterans in a rally at Portland City Hall urging active duty service members not to obey deployment orders in American cities.
“This is a serious threat, and we must treat it with the urgency it deserves,” Councilor Green told a sizable crowd. “If we use our veterans’ voices to speak from a place of experience, in solidarity, and reject the ongoing militarization of not just our hometowns, but the grander project, then we are powerful, and we can lead an important part of what must be a mass mobilization against Trumpism and fascism, more broadly.”
On Sunday evening, as she awaited Judge Immergut’s ruling on the new restraining order, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek vowed to fight the Trump administration’s attempt to send military forces to Oregon.
“I have received no direct explanation from President Trump or Secretary Hegseth about the specific need for this action. It is unclear how many will go to what location and what mission they will carry out,” Kotek wrote in a statement issued by her office. “This is a continuation and escalation of the President’s dangerous, un-American misuse of states’ National Guard members and hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
The latest court ruling out of Oregon is likely to be appealed by the federal government, creating a lengthy court battle over the president’s attempt to send National Guard troops into Democrat-controlled cities and states.
