Appeals Court Allows Troop Deployment to Portland

President Trump can move forward with his plan to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, an appeals court ruled on Monday in a major legal victory for the administration.

A three-member panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals delivered the 2-1 decision, striking down one of two temporary restraining orders issued by lower courts that halted the National Guard deployment to the ultra-woke city.

Judge Ryan Nelson and Judge Bridget Bade, both appointed by Trump, sided with the president, who has continued to push for the federal troops into Democrat-led cities.

“After considering the record at this preliminary stage, we conclude that it is likely that the President 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,’” the majority said.

During oral arguments, Nelson added that it “may well be that the forces are used in an improper way” but claimed that the court didn’t “have evidence of that.”

The lone dissenter was a judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton.

A federal judge in Oregon previously blocked the National Guard deployment to Portland in early October.

The judge cited Trump’s decision as being “untethered to reality” in her emergency order and wrote that he is risking “blurring the line between civil and military federal power – to the detriment of this nation.”

The White House then accused the judge of being “untethered in reality” in a scathing response before pivoting to the appeals court.

Oregon Assistant Attorney General Stacy Chaffin also argued that Trump’s assessment of violence in Portland didn’t remotely justify federalizing the National Guard.

She asserted that the demonstrations in the city didn’t meet the definition of a “rebellion,” which was one of the conditions Trump required to meet the legal pretext for National Guard deployment.

Trump has pushed for National Guard deployments in other Democrat-led cities, including Chicago, even amid opposition from state leaders.

Democrats have insisted that Trump is being purposefully hyperbolic in order to legitimize his attempts to “federalize” the cities.

Trump and his supporters, though, cite the violent anti-ICE protests as reason enough to deploy federal troops.

On Saturday, the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, also partially lifted a lower court’s order blocking the federal deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago

But that ruling only permitted the soldiers to remain at an army reserve base outside of the city instead of operating within its borders.

On Monday, Portland was slapped with a civil rights complaint on top of the spiraling protests in the streets for allegedly using “race-first” policies despite promises to scale back its diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.