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Deployment can move forward, for now, under a preliminary ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. But legal wrangling will likely continue.
Oct. 20, 2025Updated 4:24 p.m. ET
The Trump administration can move forward with deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Ore., under a ruling Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The 36-page ruling lifted a temporary block on the deployment of Oregon and California National Guard soldiers by Judge Karin J. Immergut of the Federal District Court for the District of Oregon. It was not immediately clear whether the order, also allowed the president to use National Guard soldiers from Texas or other states, as he has suggested he might do.
The ruling came from two members of the three-judge panel, Judge Ryan D. Nelson and Judge Bridget S. Bade, both appointees of President Trump. Judge Susan P. Graber, a Clinton appointee, dissented.
The ruling opened the door to some federal troops being stationed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland that has been the site of street protests since June.
A memo in September from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Guard troops could be stationed anywhere that protests “are occurring or likely to occur” and could accompany federal agents enacting Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda in the field.
The memo came a day after a social-media post by Mr. Trump stating that he would send “all necessary troops” “to protect war-ravaged Portland from “domestic terrorists.”
Such incendiary descriptions do not reflect the reality in Portland, Judge Immergut had written, and have been at odds with law enforcement agencies’ own assessments of protest activity. But that has not stopped the president and other officials from misrepresenting conditions in Portland and in other Democratic-led cities where he wants to send federal forces.
Much of the litigation prompted by his deployment efforts in Portland and in the Chicago area has turned on whether the Trump administration’s accounts of violence at anti-ICE protests are accurate, and whether there is a basis for invoking a federal law that allows the president to deploy the National Guard if “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion,” or if the president is unable to execute U.S. law.
In a preliminary ruling, Judge Immergut, who was nominated to the bench by Mr. Trump, found that while there had been some “violent behavior,” including the construction of a “makeshift guillotine to intimidate federal officials,” most of it occurred before June 25, and none of it amounted to a rebellion.
The two Ninth Circuit judges who ruled on Monday disagreed with her conclusion.
However, their ruling is unlikely to be the final word in the dispute over the Portland deployment. The state of Oregon and city of Portland, which filed the lawsuit, could ask for an 11-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit to review the decision or appeal directly to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Trump has some additional options as well. If the courts wind up going against his deployment, he could invoke the Insurrection Act, which would give him the authority to circumvent the court order now blocking a similar deployment in Illinois. That, however, would almost certainly be the subject of another round of lawsuits.
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