Ninth Circuit to rehear en banc Oregon National Guard case Portland

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered a full-court rehearing of a dispute over the Trump administration's effort to federalize and deploy Oregon National Guard troops to Portland, leaving roughly 200 guardsmen under federal control but barred from being sent into the city as a separate U.S. district court trial begins. The move by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated a recent three-judge panel decision that had briefly allowed the deployment and sent the case to an 11-judge en banc panel for further review.

The litigation centers on two temporary restraining orders issued earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, who found the administration had not shown that conditions in Portland met the statutory standards for calling up the Guard for federal service. Immergut blocked the federalization of Oregon troops and then, after the administration attempted to move forces from other states into Oregon, issued a second order barring any federalized National Guard personnel from deploying to Portland. A Justice Department lawyer disclosed in court that federalized Oregon soldiers were sent to Portland overnight between Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, a...