Court upholds federal control of Oregon National Guard

A federal appeals court issued a Wednesday ruling allowing President Donald Trump to call up the Oregon National Guard for federal service, but stopped short of allowing their deployment. The new 9th Circuit Court of Appeals order overturned part of a temporary stay from a lower court that stopped the president from deploying National Guard forces from any state to Oregon.

Trump recently named Portland, Ore., as the latest city he saw in need of federal troops to respond to high crime rates. The president described Portland as a war zone while addressing a group of military leaders last week, and suggested the military should use similar democratic-run cities as training grounds.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut granted Oregon’s emergency request over the weekend to stop the Trump administration from deploying the Oregon National Guard to Portland. The state argued that no conditions in the city justify a military presence. Immergut’s order also barred Trump from deploying national guardsmen from Texas, California, or any other state to Oregon.

So what exactly does this new appeals order do? The three-judge appeals panel essentially ruled to maintain the status quo while court proceedings continued. The Wednesday ruling overturned part of Immergut’s order that stopped the president from calling up National Guard members, but upheld the lower court’s order to stop their deployment. Overturning part of the lower court order will maintain normalcy, allowing guard members to be federalized but not deployed, according to the panel’s opinion.

Federal attorneys had argued that the lower court ruling illegally impinges on the president’s supervisory role over the military as commander-in-chief, according to court filings. The ruling undermines a military order and endangers personnel and property, prosecutors added. The appeals court will hold a hearing on Oct. 17 about whether to extend the lower court’s temporary stay on deployment while it considers the Trump administration’s appeal. 

Dig deeper: Listen to Myrna Brown’s report on The World and Everything in It about a National Guard deployment in Memphis, Tenn.