Trump Drops Appeal on Oregon National Guard Deployment as State Pushes for Continued Court Enforcement

In response to the Trump administration’s notice to drop its appeal against an Oregon federal judge’s injunction blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland, the state asked the court to rule on continued monitoring and enforcement.

Trump Drops Appeal Against National Guard Deployment in Oregon

Lawyers for the federal government notified the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals of their intention to drop their appeal of Judge Karen J. Immergut’s injunction blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland last week.

Lawyers for the states of Oregon and California and the city of Portland then asked the court to send the case back to Judge Karin J. Immergut for “monitoring and enforcement” of the injunction.

Arguing that federal lawyers never disavowed the legal arguments they have made throughout the appeals, they also asked the court to note that President Donald Trump threatened to send troops back to Portland and Los Angeles in January, after Oregon National Guardsmen began returning home.

On deploying troops to Portland in the future, Trump said “we can go back,” while speaking to members of the press on Air Force One on January 4, and has also indicated that he could consider invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces.

The lawyers said that a remand for monitoring and enforcement would ensure that plaintiffs have a ready mechanism to bring any additional legal violations to the district court’s immediate attention.

The full 9th Circuit court would retain discretion to hear those proceedings for future rulings.

Legal steps are taking place in other cities across the US. The nation’s highest court rejected Trump’s attempt to send National Guard troops to Chicago in December, leaving in place a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge barring deployment there.

The Trump administration lost at the US Supreme Court in a similar case out of Illinois after the court found that the law used by the Trump administration to mobilize the Guard in Illinois applied only when the US military couldn’t maintain order.

The administration had invoked the same law to call the Guard troops into federal service in Illinois and Oregon.

But under Title 10, Section 12406 of the federal code, presidents may deploy National Guard members only when they can’t execute US laws “with the regular forces.” The Supreme Court interpreted “regular forces” as the military, including the Army, the Air Force, and the Marines.

Posse Comitatus Act Moves Into Focus As Courts Restrain Deployment Of National Guard

The Oregon case has renewed focus on the Posse Comitatus Act, a US federal post-Civil War and Reconstruction law that prohibits using federal military personnel- specifically the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Space Force for domestic law enforcement unless expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress.

This adds a separate legal constraint on any future threats of troops being deployed in Portland.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 aims to prevent military interference in civilian affairs. Guard personnel called into federal service, or ‘federalized,’ are bound by the Posse Comitatus Act until they are returned to state control.