Trump can deploy National Guard in Portland, appeals court panel says
Federal agents confront protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon, on September 28, 2025.
Mathieu Lewis-rolland | Getty Images
A federal appeals court on Monday said President Donald Trump could deploy National Guard troops to the streets of Portland, Oregon.
The three-judge panel decided 2-1. U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 9th Circuit It lifted a temporary restraining order issued by a federal district court judge on Oct. 4 that prohibited Trump’s order to federalize 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to protect the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland.
“After considering the record at this preliminary stage, we conclude that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority under a ‘statute’ that authorizes the federalization of the National Guard ‘when the President is unable to enforce the laws of the United States with regular forces,'” the panel’s majority said in its decision Monday. he said.
The order detailed multiple examples of protesters disrupting activity at the ICE facility.
Majority judges Ryan Nelson and Bridget Bade were appointed to the 9th Circuit by Trump.
In a written dissent, dissenting judge Susan Graber, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, urged other justices on the 9th Circuit to “act quickly to vacate the majority decision because illegal troop deployments under false pretenses may occur.”
Graber wrote that despite Trump’s Sept. 27 social media post saying Portland was “War-ravaged,” there is no evidence in court records that ICE failed to maintain its facility in Portland or enforce immigration laws.
“But in the statute referenced here, Congress authorized the President to call out the National Guard only to repel a foreign invasion, suppress an insurrection, or overcome inability to enforce the law,” Garber said. he wrote.
“As a result, no legal or factual justification supported the order to federalize and deploy the Oregon National Guard.”
“Across political branches, we have come to expect a dose of political theatre, a drama designed to rally the base or anger or intimidate political opponents,” Graber concluded.
“We can also expect some bending — sometimes breaking — of the truth there. By the founders’ design, the judicial branch remains separate,” he wrote. “We make decisions based on facts, not conjecture or speculation, and certainly not fabrication or propaganda.”
