Donald Trump says he was poorly served by whoever told him to appoint Karin Immergut as an Article III judge in the district of Oregon. After all, she didn’t rule the way she was supposed to, and it couldn’t be his fault because nothing is his fault, when she restrained the use of the 200 federalized Oregon National Guard troops because, contrary to what Trump saw on the telly, Portland was not only not “on fire,” but was under control to the extent necessary with local law enforcement.
Accordingly, there was no justification to invoke 10 U.S.C. § 12406 and federalize the National Guard against the wishes of the governor of Oregon.
Whenever—
(1) the United States, or any of the Commonwealths or possessions, is invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation;
(2) there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States; or
(3) the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States;the President may call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws. Orders for these purposes shall be issued through the governors of the States or, in the case of the District of Columbia, through the commanding general of the National Guard of the District of Columbia.
Trump’s disappointment in his own appointed judge aside, he was not going to be bested by the law.
Though Trump had claimed the military was needed to combat daily violence against federal immigration officials, Immergut, a Trump appointee, concluded that Trump’s assessment was “untethered to facts” and failed to satisfy the legal basis to federalize the state’s National Guard troops.
Within hours of her ruling, however, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of members of California’s National Guard to deploy to Portland and reached an agreement with Texas to send hundreds of that state’s National Guard troops to Chicago, Portland and other areas of the country.
Judge Immergut’s order restrained the Oregon National Guard. Well then, just send the Texas National Guard. And then there’s the California National Guard, which had already bagged all the litter around Los Angeles and had nothing left to do. To Oregon, troops!
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut said Sunday that the administration’s effort to circumvent her original order — in part by deploying Guard troops from California and Texas — was “in direct contravention” of her earlier decision, which prohibited Trump from federalizing 200 members of Oregon’s National Guard.
If the facts on the ground in Portland failed to satisfy the requirements 10 U.S.C. § 12406 for the federalization of the Oregon National Guard, then the same was true for the Guard of any other state. But believing they found a loophole in her order, Hegseth issued the order.
During an unusual Sunday night telephone hearing, Immergut said the Trump administration’s maneuvers appeared to be a deliberate attempt to circumvent her initial decision.
“I am certainly troubled by now hearing that both California and Texas National Guard are being sent into Oregon, which does appear to be in direct contravention of my order,” Immergut said, describing the latest deployments as a violation of federal law and the Tenth Amendment, which protects state sovereignty.
It goes without saying that Sunday night hearings are not normal, but then again, neither is sending in troops from other states when a judge enjoins troops from the state at issue when the holding is that the federalization of National Guard troops is ultra vires.
Did something else change that gave rise to the administration bringing in the National Guard of a foreign state to invade Oregon when the court already held that the state’s National Guard couldn’t be used because the statutory requirements were not met? And then there’s that Tenth Amendment thing where the federal government doesn’t get to override state sovereignty just because it wants to.
Immergut agreed with attorneys for California and Oregon, who said the new deployments appeared to be intended to outrun the court. She repeatedly pressed Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton about whether he believed the administration had complied with her order.
“You are missing the point,” she scolded, as Hamilton noted the judge’s Saturday order only applied to Oregon troops.
Was the government attorney “missing the point,” or was Judge Immergut? Her point was that Trump lacked authority to federalize the National Guard in Portland. Trump’s point was he didn’t care about her point.