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In the court room overseen by at least one female jurist in the state of Oregon, the rule of law still prevails. For how long that will hold true is a question not only for Oregon, but for the whole nation.
On Saturday, within hours of Federal District Judge Karin Immergut issuing her temporary restraining order against the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard in Portland, Secretary Pete “Rocks Glass” Hegseth ordered units from the California National Guard, along with extra units from the Texas Guard, to be deployed in Portland, Chicago, and elsewhere around the country.
The attorney generals of both Oregon and California went to court on Sunday, filing lawsuits to block Hegseth’s order. In an extraordinary hearing by telephone on Sunday night, Judge Immergut, for the second time in as many days, issued an order restraining the Trump administration from deploying National Guard units to Portland. This time, her order pertained to National Guard units from Texas and California. Her previous order barred Trump from federalizing the Oregon National Guard.
“I am certainly troubled by now hearing that both California and Texas National Guard are being sent into Oregon, which does appear to be in direct contravention of my order. Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order? Why is this appropriate?” Immergut asked Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton.
Hamiltorn replied that Immergut’s Saturday order pertained only to the Oregon National Guard, not to units from other states, such as California and Texas. “You are missing the point,” Immergut told Hamilton, agreeing with Oregon Senior Assistant Attorney General Scott Kennedy, who argued that “It feels a little bit like we’re playing a game of rhetorical whack-a-mole here.” The lawsuit filed by Oregon asked Immergut to bar National Guard units from every other state in the Union, including Washington D.C., from deploying to Oregon.
The Trump DOJ has already appealed Immergut’s latest order to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Whacking Trump’s moles will continue in the coming days and weeks as the Trump administration seeks to get the issue before the Supreme Court, where they hope the Court will take the case on an “emergency basis” and stay Immergut’s order using its “Shadow docket” without issuing an opinion on the merits.
In her ruling on Saturday, Judge Immergut found that Trump’s order did not meet the standard necessary to use soldiers to perform law enforcement duties under 10 U.S.C. § 12406, which allows the president to federalize the National Guard to “repel invasion, suppress rebellion, or execute U.S. laws when regular forces are insufficient.” Immergut’s Saturday order held that Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the use of the military to perform civil law enforcement duties. Trump would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act to create an exception to that law, a complicated process that involves getting agreement from the Congress, which Trump has not attempted to do. The Insurrection Act can be used only to put down a rebellion against the U.S. government or suppress an insurrection, neither of which is happening in Portland, Chicago, or any other city in which Trump wants to deploy National Guard soldiers.
Immergut found the reasons Trump cited for deploying the National Guard in Portland were “untethered to facts.” Trump called Portland “war ravaged” in a recent Truth Social post that described the city as “burning down” and “like living in hell.” He had apparently been watching a show on Fox News that had run tape of Black Lives Matter protests against the killing of George Floyd in 2020 that showed burning cars and tear gas used to suppress the protests.
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels and several unsuccessful motion pictures. He has three children, lives in rural Pennsylvania and spends his time Worrying About the State of Our Nation and madly scribbling in a so-far fruitless attempt to Make Things Better.
You can read Lucian Truscott's daily articles at luciantruscott.substack.com. We encourage our readers to get a subscription.
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