Appeals Court Restores Trump’s Control Over Oregon National Guard

A federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted a judge’s order blocking President Trump from calling Oregon National Guard troops into federal service, but he still may not deploy them, for now.

The temporary, administrative stay puts U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut’s order halting Trump’s federalization of the National Guard members on hold while the appeals court weighs whether to extend the pause as it considers the administration’s appeal. But it keeps in place her second order barring the president from sending the troops anywhere in the state.

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit wrote in a brief order Wednesday that the decision best preserves the “status quo.”

“The effect of granting an administrative stay preserves the status quo in which National Guard members have been federalized but not deployed,” they wrote.

The Trump administration had urged the appeals court to act by Monday, contending Immergut “impermissibly second-guessed” Trump’s military judgments.

But the president then moved to send hundreds of federalized troops from California and Texas to Portland instead. At a hearing Sunday night, Immergut questioned how the move was not “in direct contravention” of her earlier order.

California joined Oregon’s legal bid to keep the federalized troops out of Portland, and Immergut granted their request to block Trump from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon at all. That order remains in effect.

After Immergut blocked the Oregon troops’ deployment, California and Oregon officials said the Trump administration planned to deploy 200 or 300 California National Guard members to Portland, alongside some Texas National Guard members.