Threats by leaders in one major crime-plagued U.S. city to sue President Donald Trump over his plan to deploy the National Guard have not gone as expected for them.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that President Donald Trump could deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon as part of his plan to fight high levels of violent crime there.
The 2-1 ruling lifted a lower court order that blocked Trump from deploying the troops, but other challenges could make that ruling all but moot.
A second emergency order blocking Trump specifically from deploying any federalized troops to Portland remains in place, and the justices on the 9th Circuit said they couldn't evaluate that order.
Trump has asked the judge who issued that order, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, to dissolve her order in light of the appeals court ruling, but that has not happened so far.
Lawyers for California and Oregon are resisting that move, and asked for the order to remain in place until the 9th Circuit decides whether to have the full appellate court bench deliberate on it.
"The fight is not over," Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek vowed to reporters on Monday. "Until the district court acts on the second TRO, National Guard members from Oregon, or any other state cannot deploy."
Friday should bring more clarity on two fronts.
Immergut has ordered both parties to appear on Friday for a decision on whether to dissolve the emergency order.
In addition, the appeals court has scheduled a hearing to decide whether the full court will hear the appeal of that order.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court may get its chance to weigh in soon, since Trump has asked for an appeal of an order blocking him from deploying troops to Chicago, another city sorely in need of some law and order.
The deployment to Washington, D.C. has correlated with a drop in criminal activity, especially vehicle thefts, which were down 34% in the first 30 days of the deployment.
Trump would like to keep Guard troops deployed in D.C., but there's a case pending related to whether he will be able to do that as well.
At any rate, he's showing he wants to do something to help these high rates of crime, which is more than we can say for the Democrat mayors of these cities.
