9th Circuit Court Rules in Favor of National Guard Deployment to Portland

In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted President Donald Trump the authority to send the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, overturning an earlier ruling by a district judge.

This marks the second instance where the Ninth Circuit, often perceived as having liberal leanings, has overturned lower court decisions to permit Trump to utilize his constitutional role as commander-in-chief, with California being the first example.

According to National Public Radio:

Previously, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, appointed by Trump for her first term, had blocked the deployment, a decision celebrated by many liberal commentators. Her bold proclamation, “This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” drew attention. However, the Ninth Circuit has now clarified that while this is a nation governed by constitutional law, it does not mean judges can supersede the law, disrupt order, or override the Constitution.

“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 wrote in their decision.

…

On Oct. 16, a federal appeals court upheld an earlier district court ruling in Illinois, temporarily blocking the president’s federalization and deployment of the National Guard deployment there. The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

Much had been made, earlier, of the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, a first-term Trump appointee, to block the deployment. Liberal commentators relished in her grandiose declaration: “This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law.” The Ninth Circuit has since decided: it is, indeed, a nation of constitutional law, but not of rule by judges against law and order, or over the Constitution itself.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.