Oregon Judge Issues Second TRO on Trump’s National Guard Deployment

Okay, we sort of saw this coming: Oregon District Court Judge Karin Immergut has now issued a second temporary restraining order (TRO) as to the Trump administration’s National Guard troop deployment in Oregon — this one covering any/all National Guard troops, not just Oregon’s.

The first TRO was issued Saturday evening after the state of Oregon filed suit against the administration to challenge its deployment of 200 National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon. The catch, though, was that it only applied to Oregon National Guard members. So the Trump administration pivoted and prepared to deploy California National Guard troops instead.

However, as noted in the update to our reporting on the California maneuver, Oregon amended its complaint and sought a second TRO “to prohibit the relocation or deployment of any National Guard under Defendants’ command (i.e., Title 10 status) within the State of Oregon.”

The court set a hearing on the second TRO for 7:00 PM (Pacific) Sunday night, following which, Judge Immergut issued her order granting that TRO.

This one’s brief, basically just referring back to the original TRO in terms of its rationale and providing that:

Defendants are temporarily enjoined from deploying federalized members of the National Guard in Oregon.

The TRO is set to expire in 14 days, with any motion for preliminary injunction due by October 17, and a hearing on any such motion and trial on the merits now set for October 29.

The court denied the administration’s request for a stay of the TRO to allow for an appeal. The administration has already appealed the first TRO to the 9th Circuit, so we can expect them to piggyback an appeal of this second one onto that.

For those wondering, the 9th Circuit has issued a stay pending appeal in the first iteration of California/Gavin Newsom’s challenge to National Guard troop deployment in California and an administrative stay in the second round of that case (involving Posse Comitatus). So there’s a fair indication they may do the same with this case. We’ll soon see.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated post-publication to note that the first TRO was entered on Saturday rather than Friday.