In a significant legal decision on Friday, a federal judge determined that President Trump’s attempt to deploy Oregon’s National Guard to Portland was unlawful. This ruling delivers a substantial setback to his initiative to send troops to Democratic-led cities where protests have focused on federal immigration sites.

Judge Karin Immergut, appointed by Trump, issued a permanent injunction preventing the president from mobilizing Oregon’s National Guard into the city. She concluded that his actions violated federal law and encroached on the state’s autonomy in his endeavor to deploy troops in Portland.

This ruling represents the first judicial assessment of Trump’s assertive strategy concerning the National Guard, while legal battles surrounding his actions in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., continue to unfold in the courts.

Immergut clarified in her decision, “This Court does not assert that the President is forever barred from deploying the National Guard to Oregon or elsewhere if the circumstances warrant such intervention. However, the U.S. Constitution entrusts Congress with the authority to activate the National Guard for enforcing federal laws, quelling insurrections, and repelling invasions, and this power is delegated to the President through statute.”

She further noted, “Until the President legally federalizes the National Guard, its members remain part of the State militia, commanded by the state governor.”

The decision comes on the heels of a three-day trial, which featured testimony from local and federal law enforcement — often in tension — about the nature of the protests at the heart of the case.   

Trump called up Oregon’s National Guard in September, promising to protect “war-ravaged” Portland and its U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. State and city officials quickly sued to block his efforts.   

The president initially federalized and moved to deploy 200 Oregon troops, but after Immergut temporarily blocked the effort, he sought to send troops from California and Texas into the city, prompting the judge to bar any troops from being deployed. The administration has appealed.  

At trial, Justice Department (DOJ) lawyers argued that Trump lawfully federalized the National Guard under a provision of Title 10 that lists three circumstances where the president may do so: an invasion, a rebellion or an inability to execute the law with regular forces. 

They claimed that the protests outside Portland’s ICE facility have thwarted federal officers’ ability to do their jobs without help and amounted to rebellion against the government, while maintaining that courts should not review Trump’s determination. 

“Congress, in Section 12406, made those decisions for the president to make,” said DOJ lawyer Eric Hamilton, referencing the provision. 

Two Federal Protective Service supervisors testified anonymously that the National Guard would alleviate strains, though they conceded that neither requested military assistance.  

Immergut noted their testimony in her ruling, in addition to the testimony of Maj. Gen. Timothy Rieger, acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, who said he had no personal knowledge of the situation on the ground in Portland when issuing the memo proposing the troops’ assistance.  

Portland police provided a different picture of the scene on the ground in testimony. 

They said that largely peaceful protests have already been inflamed by the few federal officers on site and pointed to the riots that consumed the city in 2020 to exemplify how tactless policing can rile up crowds.  

The officers also used the 2020 demonstrations — which began as peaceful demonstrations after George Floyd’s police killing in Minneapolis but devolved into 200 days of sustained protest and sometimes violent clashes — to undermine the administration’s contention that the city is now under siege.  

“It was just an entirely different type of disorder,” Portland Police Bureau Cmdr. Franz Schoening said of the protests five years ago.  

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit paused one of Immergut’s orders last month, but the appeals court vacated that decision and said the full court would rehear the case.  

Trump’s efforts to deploy the National Guard to major cities have seen varying success.  

Troops are on the ground in California and D.C., but courts have so far blocked deployment in Illinois — though the situation could rapidly change.  

The Supreme Court is weighing an emergency application from the administration to let it deploy the National Guard to the Chicago area but has not yet ruled.  

The judge temporarily paused a portion of her final judgment for 14 days, so Trump may maintain control of Oregon’s National Guard but not deploy any troops as the administration appeals.