Topline
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that President Donald Trump can send troops to Portland, Oregon, while litigation over their deployment moves forward, overturning a lower court that blocked Trump from his latest effort to use the military in Democratic-leaning cities.
Federal agents, including members of the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, and the police, attempt to keep protesters back outside a downtown U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on October 5, 2025 in Portland, Oregon.
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Key Facts
A three-judge panel at the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in the Trump administration’s favor, blocking an earlier ruling that temporarily prohibited the federal government from sending troops to Portland.
The city of Portland had sued the federal government after Trump signed an order deploying the military to the Oregon city, citing protests taking place there against his administration’s immigration agenda.
While Portland argued Trump acted outside the scope of his authority by sending in the military, the Ninth Circuit disagreed, ruling Monday that evidence suggests Trump “lawfully federalized the National Guard” as authorized to do by Congress.
Federal law allows Trump to federalize the National Guard when the president “is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States,” based on a “colorable assessment of the facts and law within a ‘range of honest judgment.’”
The district court ruled Trump did not properly assess the situation as the law requires, pointing to social media comments Trump made that described Portland as “war ravaged,” which the court said suggested Trump was “ignoring the facts on the ground.”
The appeals court gave much more deference to Trump’s judgment, however, ruling the president has broad authority to determine when federalizing the National Guard is necessary and thus acted in line with federal law—regardless of whether he “exaggerate[d] the extent of the problem on social media.”
Key Background
Earlier this month, the Trump administration moved to deploy about 200 troops from the Oregon National Guard to Portland, where they claimed the forces were needed to protect federal assets. Oregon quickly sued to stop the deployment, and the administration was initially blocked by District Court Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee from his first term in office who disputed the administration’s claims that the city was “war ravaged.” The Trump administration argued that the troops were necessary to protect an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Oregon city that faced prot