US appeals court allows Trump to send troops to Portland

By Dietrich Knauth – A divided U.S. appeals court ruled Monday that Donald Trump can send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, despite objections from city and state leaders, giving the Republican president an important legal victory as he sends military forces to a growing number of Democratic-led areas. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Justice Department’s request to stay a judge’s order blocking the deployment while a legal challenge to Trump’s actions plays out. Portland-based U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, who appointed Trump during his first term as president, ruled on Oct. 4 that Trump likely acted illegally when he ordered troops to Portland. One judge dissented, while the other two ruled in Trump’s favor. Immergut has blocked Trump from sending any National Guard troops to Portland until at least the end of October, and she has scheduled a non-jury trial to begin on Oct. 29 to determine whether to impose a longer-term blockade. DEMOCRATIC-LEAD STATES TRY TO STOP ATTACHMENT In an extraordinary use of the US armed forces for domestic purposes, Trump sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Washington, DC and Memphis and announced plans to deploy to Portland and Chicago. Democratic-led states and cities have filed lawsuits to stop the deployments, and courts have yet to make a final decision on the legality of Trump’s decisions to send the National Guard to American cities. City and state officials have sued the administration in an attempt to stop the Portland deployment, arguing that Trump’s actions violate several federal laws governing the use of military force as well as states’ rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment. The lawsuit accused Trump of exaggerating the severity of protests against his immigration policies to justify the illegal seizure of control of the state’s National Guard units. Trump ordered 200 National Guard troops to Portland on Sept. 27, continuing his administration’s unprecedented use of military personnel in US cities to quell protests and step up domestic immigration enforcement. Trump called the city “War-torn” and said, “I also authorize Full Force, if necessary.” Police records provided by the state showed protests in Portland were “small and peaceful,” resulting in only 25 arrests in mid-June and no arrests in the 3-1/2 months since June 19. A federal law called the Posse Comitatus Act generally limits the use of the US military for domestic law enforcement purposes. To order troops to California, Oregon and Illinois, Trump relied on a law – Section 12406 of Title 10 of the United States Code – that allows a president to deploy the National Guard to repel an invasion, suppress a rebellion or allow the president to execute the law. The National Guard serves as state-based militia forces that answer to state governors, except when the president is called into federal service. The 9th Circuit panel that ruled in the Portland case consisted of two judges appointed by Trump in his first term as president and one appointed by Democratic former President Bill Clinton. During arguments in the case on Oct. 9, the two Trump-appointed judges suggested that Immergut focused too narrowly on protests in the city in September without fully considering more serious protests two months before the troop deployment. Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson said that courts should not make a “day by day” examination of whether troops are needed at any given time. Immergut issued rulings against the administration on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, first ruling that Trump could not take over Oregon’s National Guard and then ruling that he could not circumvent that decision by calling in National Guard troops from other states. The judge said there was no evidence that recent protests in Portland had risen to the level of a rebellion or seriously interfered with law enforcement, and she said Trump’s description of the city as war-torn was “simply detached from the facts.” Immergut is one of three district court judges who have ruled against Trump’s use of the National Guard, and no district court judge has ever ruled for Trump in the National Guard cases. Appeals courts have so far split on the issue, with the 9th Circuit previously supporting Trump’s use of troops in California and the 7th Circuit ruling that troops should stay out of Chicago for now. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed with no text modifications.