FILE - Protesters hold signs reading "Guard: Go Home" while people make their way into the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Friday, Oct. 3 in Portland, Ore.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
An appeals court ruling that Oregon National Guard troops can be sent into Portland is on hold, as judges take a closer look at the matter.
On Friday afternoon, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the order issued Monday by a panel of three judges within the circuit.
The newly issued hold lasts until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28. According to the court, it is necessary to allow a broader swathe of appeals judges to decide whether to rehear the matter.
The order is the latest in a flurry of legal action in the fight over whether President Donald Trump can deploy National Guard troops to protect a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland. It likely puts off any such deployment until next week, at the earliest.
The ruling comes the same day a lower court took up a separate but related matter. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut held a hearing Friday morning on whether to dissolve a temporary restraining order barring troops from being sent to Portland.
The Trump administration had argued the restraining order was legally impermissible, following Monday’s ruling that the president was within his rights to deploy Oregon National Guard troops in Portland.
Immergut said she planned to rule on the matter by Monday — potentially opening the door to a troop deployment. The new 9th Circuit order alters that timeline.
“This decision gives the court time to fully consider the serious constitutional questions at stake,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement Friday. “It also ensures there won’t be a federal deployment while that process plays out — an important step in protecting Oregonians’ rights and keeping our communities safe.”
In Monday’s ruling, a three judge panel — including two Trump appointees — found that Trump legally mobilized 200 National Guard troops in late September in response to months of protests in Portland. The panel’s lone dissenter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, strongly disagreed.
Immediately following the ruling, a judge within the 9th Circuit called for a vote on whether a broader segment of judges should take up the matter. Friday’s ruling appears geared to ensuring that vote can be held before any decisions are made on a troop deployment.
The Monday ruling relied in part on accounts of destructive protests at the ICE facility in June, and on the Trump administration’s argument it had to send a crush of officers from other parts of the country to protect the facility.
But just how many officers have been sent to Portland has been a subject of some controversy.
The majority opinion, signed by Judges Ryan Nelson and Bridget Bade, suggested 115 Federal Protective Service officers had been sent en masse to Portland, representing a major diversion of forces. New court filings show that is not the case, but that officers were sent in roughly monthlong “waves” of up to 30 people.
