A judge has temporarily stopped President Donald Trump from sending troops to Portland, Oregon.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut temporarily delayed the Trump administration's order to activate the National Guard and send federal troops to Portland.
The State of Oregon and the City of Portland filed the lawsuit in response to President Donald Trump's Sept. 27 order to send "all necessary troops" to Portland, putting 200 members of the Oregon National Guard under the command of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
06 Nat Guard or 1756 Mtn for TRO by scott.mcclallen
Some Portland leaders opposed the decision, including Mayor Keith Wilson, Portland city councilors, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and other local leaders who have denounced the federal deployment.
"In this case, and unlike in Newsom II, Plaintiffs provide substantial evidence that the protests at the Portland ICE facility were not significantly violent or disruptive in the days—or even weeks—leading up to the President's directive on September 27, 2025," Immergut wrote in her decision issued Saturday.
"Furthermore, this country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs."
At issue is the interpretation of Title 10, the law that grants the president the power to deploy the National Guard in case of invasion, rebellion, or where the government is unable to execute the law.
Oregon and Portland argued that the order did not meet th legal requirements necessary to activate the National Guard.
Scott Kennedy, Senior Assistant Attorney General for Oregon, claimed the federal government had not produced evidence of the kind of breakdown and lawlessness required.
"Sporadic incidents that were quickly contained are not enough to justify this order," he said.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton retorted that the President's recent social media posts on Truth Social claiming that Portland was deteriorating into "lawless mayhem" were sufficient grounds to make the order.
According to a recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, judges must grant the executive branch "great level of deference" in determining whether those conditions exist. For the determination to be valid, the ruling stated, there must be an invasion, rebellion, on an inability to execute the laws. The President's determination cannot be beyond "range of honest judgment" or "obviously absurd or made in bad faith."
Hamilton also cited the tragic shooting of the ICE Facility in Dallas as additional reason for the President's order. That event, he said, "underscores the seriousness of the threat" in Portland.
Hamilton also claimed that "there is a clear danger of rebellion" in Portland, specifying that danger of rebellion is enough to activate the guard, even in the absence of actual rebellion.
The order follows Trump designating Antifa as a major terrorist group.
Trump has sent troops to Washington D.C. and will send 300 troops to Illinois.