HOUSTON, United States
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's deployment Saturday of National Guard troops to the city of Portland in the state of Oregon, according to media reports.
US District Judge Karin Immergut, an appointee of President Donald Trump, blocked the deployment of 200 guardsmen to Portland after city and state officials filed a lawsuit arguing that the move was unconstitutional.
The judge wrote in her ruling that the US Constitution grants Congress the power to call forth troops to execute laws, suppress an insurrection or repel an invasion, not the president.
"Because the President is federalizing the Oregon National Guard absent constitutional authority, his actions undermine the sovereign interest of Oregon as protected by the Tenth Amendment," said Immergut.
The ruling is not final, but it temporarily blocks the implementation of a Sept. 28 memo by Trump ordering the federalization and deployment of the Oregon National Guard.
The judge's order expires Oct. 18 and could be extended.
Immergut wrote that the Portland and Oregon lawsuits showed a likelihood of success on the merits, justifying the temporary restraining order, saying that "this country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs."
The ruling is another setback for the Trump administration, as it seeks to use military troops in Democratic-run cities.
A federal judge in California last month ruled that the president's use of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles was illegal, violating the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits the president from using the military as a domestic police force.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Saturday that he was informed by the Trump administration that the Department of Defense plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard and deploy them within the state.
Trump signed a memo Sept. 15 ordering the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, in what the president called a crackdown on crime.