Judge Blocks Trump From Invading Portland

President Donald Trump couldn’t possibly make it more abundantly clear that he seeks power just for the sake of having it to wield and for no other practical reason.

Depending on which reputable criminal database you consult, violent crime in the U.S. is the lowest it has been in three to five decades. Since before Trump resumed getting his spray-tanned butt shaving all over the Oval Office furniture again in January, crime had been trending downward in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Portland, and everywhere else he has either deployed the National Guard to or threatened to do so.

Now that federal judges are making another trend out of telling this administration of dunces and dictators that it can’t keep treating the U.S. Constitution like it’s an optional guideline rather than the single most important document they’re sworn to uphold, Trump and his leg-humping MAGA goons are claiming they’re all rogue, radicalized judges sent by some kind of Antifa-luminati to thwart the president’s mission.

No administration is this paranoid unless it knows exactly how corrupt it is.

On Sunday, a district judge temporarily blocked Trump from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon, one day after she blocked the administration from sending the Oregon National Guard into Portland, according to the Los Angeles Times, which noted that the ruling came hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his intention to seek a court order to stop the president from deploying 300 of the state’s National Guard troops. Officials from California and Oregon filed the restraining order after Trump sent California Guard troops to Oregon earlier that Sunday.

From the Times:

Originally, the two states only named the California National Guard when seeking the court order. They asked for the order to be expanded to any Guard troops, however, after a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was submitted to the court saying up to 400 Texas National Guard personnel were being activated for deployment to Oregon, Illinois and possibly elsewhere.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday night in a post on X that he “fully authorized” the use of the Texas National Guard to “ensure safety for federal officials.” “You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” he wrote.

In the more sweeping order on Sunday evening, Judge Karin Immergut questioned the federal government’s attorney, asking how the decision to send troops from California and Texas to Oregon could not be seen as anything other than circumventing her order.

Apparently, Judge Immergut wasn’t satisfied with the government’s excuses for why it should be able to use the U.S. military as its own personal Department of Sticking It to Democrats While Terrorizing the Coloreds.

“The rule of law has prevailed — and California’s National Guard will be heading home,” Newsom said in a statement. “This ruling is more than a legal victory; it’s a victory for American democracy itself. Donald Trump tried to turn our soldiers into instruments of his political will, and while our fight continues, tonight the rule of law said, ‘Hell no.’”

Oregon Atty. Gen. Dan Rayfield agreed.

“What was unlawful yesterday is unlawful today,” he said. “The judge’s order was not some minor procedural point for the president to work around, like my 14-year-old does when he doesn’t like my answers.”

Predictably, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller had a different, much lengthier take on the ruling.

In a multi-paragraph X post that served as the picture-perfect example of tweets that make you want to respond, “Sir, this is a Wendy’s,” Miller insisted that “the President has undisputed authority under both statute and the Constitution to deploy troops, stationed in any state, to defend a federal facility from domestic terrorism or violent assault,” referring to attacks on ICE facilities that, as far as Portland authorities can tell, are not happening.

“A district court judge has no conceivable authority, whatsoever, to restrict the President and Commander-in-Chief from dispatching members of the US military to defend federal lives and property,” Miller continued.

Here’s the thing: Every time a federal judge rules against the Trump administration — and it happens quite often — Trump and his minions remind us that not only do they have a loose grasp on how the Constitution is supposed to work, but they have completely lost whatever grasp they might have had on our system of checks and balances.

Federal judges are part of the judicial branch of government. It is literally part of their job to tell the executive branch when it’s running hog-wild and needs to be lassoed. (Or zip-tied, kind of like what ICE does to Chicago children.) Congress is supposed to do the same when necessary, but since both chambers are controlled by Republicans who waved bye-bye to any shred of integrity they might have possessed before they made Trump their king, the White House has been able to rely on the legislative branch to be utterly useless. Then there’s the most powerful part of the judicial branch, the U.S. Supreme Court, which is also packed with conservative Republicans who would rather ride the MAGA train to Fascism Station rather than block this authoritarian regime. Basically, the federal judges who are willing to stand up for the rule of law are all we have left.

Anyway, Portland may not be the only city Trump runs into trouble with in his bid to weaponize the National Guard against his own citizens. On Monday, Illinois and Chicago officials filed a lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s federalization and deployment of the National Guard to Chicago, a city the administration has already done enough damage to by sending hundreds of federal agents to rappel down from Black Hawks onto a residential building and terrorize countless civilians during an unhinged ICE raid that reportedly targeted a handful of alleged gang members.

According to ABC News, lawyers for Illinois and Chicago claimed in the lawsuit that the foundational principle separating the military from domestic affairs is “in peril” as Trump weaponizes the National Guard against cities across the country.

“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” they wrote in the complaint.

From ABC:

The plaintiffs’ attorneys are asking a federal judge to issue an order blocking any state’s National Guard from being federalized and deployed to Illinois, arguing the state is being targeted because its “leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor.” 

“There is no insurrection in Illinois. There is no rebellion in Illinois. The federal government is able to enforce federal law in Illinois. The manufactured nature of the crisis is clear,” according to the 69-page complaint. 

Attorneys for Illinois and Chicago argue that Trump has failed to justify taking over the National Guard based on federal law — which allows a federalization in response to a rebellion or invasion — and violates the Posse Comitatus Act prohibiting the use of the military in domestic law enforcement. 

“Defendants’ unlawful deployment of the Illinois National Guard, over the objection of the state, is similar to the unlawful course of conduct they have taken against other disfavored states and cities,” the complaint said. 

The lawsuit cites Trump’s social media posts about sending militarized law enforcement to Chicago — including a post in which he said, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning” — and his recent comments about using Democratic-led cities “as training grounds for our military.”

The Trump administration is using its power to deport any immigrant who speaks out against its polices, defund or take control of any organization it ideologically disagrees with, and turn the U.S. military against its own citizens. This is the “tyrannical government” conservatives pretended to fear every time there was a Democrat in office.

What happened to that?

SEE ALSO:

Residents In Historically Crime-Ridden Chicago Neighborhood Oppose Trump’s National Guard Threats

Trump Floats Idea Of Deploying National Guard To New Orleans

President Trump Says He’ll Deploy National Guard To Memphis