Federal agents confront protesters outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on September 28, 2025 in Portland, Oregon.
Mathieu Lewis-rolland | Getty Images
A federal appeals court on Monday said that President Donald Trump could deploy National Guard troops to the streets of Portland, Oregon.
The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit U.S. Courts of Appeals stayed a temporary restraining order issued by a federal district court judge on Oct. 4 enjoining Trump’s order to federalize 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to protect an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland.
“After considering the record at this preliminary stage, we conclude that it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority under” a law “which authorizes the federalization of the National Guard when ‘the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States,’ ” the majority of the panel said in its order Monday.
The order detailed multiple instances of protestors disrupting activity at the ICE facility.
Both of the judges in the majority, Ryan Nelson and Bridget Bade, were appointed to the 9th Circuit by Trump.
The dissenting judge, Susan Graber, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, in a written dissent, urged other judges on the 9th Circuit to “act swiftly to vacate the majority’s order because the illegal deployment of troops under false pretenses can occur.”
Graber wrote that despite Trump’s social media post on Sept. 27 saying that Portland was “War ravaged,” there is no evidence in the court record that ICE was unable to either protect its facility in Portland or to execute immigration laws.
“But, in the statute invoked here, Congress has authorized the President to call up the National Guard only to repel a foreign invasion, quell a rebellion, or overcome an inability to execute the laws,” Garber wrote.
“Consequently, no legal or factual justification supported the order to federalize and deploy the Oregon National Guard.”
Graber concluded by saying, “We have come to expect a dose of political theater in the political branches, drama designed to rally the base or to rile or intimidate political opponents.”
“We also may expect there a measure of bending — sometimes breaking — the truth. By design of the Founders, the judicial branch stands apart,” she wrote. “We rule on facts, not on supposition or conjecture, and certainly not on fabrication or propaganda.”
