Politics

National Guard deployments in DC and Portland, Oregon, are focus of court hearings

National Guard deployments in DC and Portland, Oregon, are focus of court hearings

No National Guard troops are expected to be deployed in Portland, Oregon, for at least several days, after a temporary federal appeals court decision Friday. Meanwhile, a judge in Washington, D.C., is weighing whether to pull more than 2,000 troops off the streets of the nation's capital.

The developments are the latest in a head-spinning array of lawsuits and overlapping rulings prompted by Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities despite fierce resistance from mayors and governors. Troop deployment remains blocked in the Chicago area, where all sides are waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to allow it.

Here’s what to know about the latest legal efforts to block or deploy the Guard in various cities.

A federal appeals court on Friday paused a decision issued by a three-judge panel earlier in the week that could have allowed President Donald Trump to deploy 200 Oregon National Guard troops, ostensibly to protect federal property in Portland.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it needs until 5 p.m. Tuesday to decide whether to reconsider the panel’s decision, and the panel's decision won't take effect until then.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee in Portland, issued two temporary restraining orders earlier this month — one prohibiting Trump from calling up Oregon troops to Portland and another blocking him from sending any Guard members to Oregon at all after he tried to evade the first order by deploying California troops instead.

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel put the first ruling on hold Monday, letting Trump take command of 200 Oregon National Guard troops. But the second order remained in effect, blocking him from actually deploying them.

At a hearing Friday, the Justice Department told Immergut she must immediately dissolve the second order because its reasoning was the same as that rejected by the appeals panel in a 2-1 decision Monday. Attorneys for Oregon disagreed, saying the orders were distinct and that she should wait to see if the 9th Circuit will reconsider the panel’s ruling.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, heard arguments Friday on District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb 's request for an order that would remove more than 2,000 Guard members from Washington streets. She did not rule from the bench.

In August, Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the district — though the Department of Justice itself says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.