Appeals Court Allows Troop Deployment to Portland

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.

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.

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.