California’s Governor Gavin Newsom is celebrating his latest legal triumph over President Donald Trump’s Administration after a federal judge prevented Trump from sending any National Guard troops, including those from California, to police Portland, Oregon.
“We just won in court—again,” Newsom declared late Sunday night. “A federal judge blocked Trump’s unlawful attempt to deploy 300 of our National Guard troops to Portland. The court granted our request for a temporary restraining order, halting any federalization, relocation, or deployment of any guard members to Oregon from any state.”
Concluding the message, Newsom—who has frequently clashed with the President—vowed: “Trump’s abuse of power won’t stand.”
Newsom accompanied the statement with an explicit song choice—Dr. Dre’s “F*ck You”—and encouraged readers to have the “sound on.”
Federal judge Karin Immergut issued the temporary injunction on any National Guard deployment just hours after she ruled against using Oregon National Guard troops in Portland.
Both California and Oregon had filed separate lawsuits to block the move.
“How could bringing in a federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” Immergut queried Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Hamilton on Sunday.
“Are the defendants not simply circumventing my order?… Why is this appropriate?” she asked.
Immergut’s ruling is set to remain active until at least October 19, with California and Oregon both seeking a longer-term decision.
The Trump Administration appealed Immergut’s initial decision regarding the Oregon troops on Sunday, arguing that the judge had “impermissibly second-guessed the Commander-in-Chief’s military judgments.”
“The facts haven’t changed: President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson in a statement to TIME on Monday morning.
Prior to the temporary block against the Trump Administration, Illinois’ Gov. JB Pritzker said that Trump was attempting to deploy 400 troops from the Texas National Guard to Portland, as well as his own state facing federal deployments over the weekend resulting from ICE officials conducting military-style mass raids.
“No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate,” Pritzker said, who earlier argued that Trump is “attempting to manufacture a crisis.”
Gov. Greg Abbott weighed in, saying: “You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let [the] Texas Guard do it.”
Following the ruling, Newsom dismissed Abbott’s suggestion.
“Sorry, Champ—the Constitution’s in your way! A respected federal judge just ruled you can’t send your troops to Oregon,” the statement read.
Trump’s focus on Portland intensified over a week ago after he deployed troops to the city, claiming that it was “war-ravaged” and that ICE centers and personnel were under attack. It was the latest move in his targeting of Democratic-run cities, many of which he claims are crime-ridden.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has insisted that the city “doesn’t need nor want” federal troops.
“The fight the federal Administration seeks is not in our city, and I call on our national leaders to chart a course that leads to our future, and not to further fear and division,” said Wilson.
The Trump Administration has faced numerous legal battles and blockings since it began its campaign of deploying National Guard troops without the request, or approval, of state leaders.
In September, Judge Charles R. Breyer of the Federal District Court in San Francisco delivered Newsom a legal triumph over Trump when he ruled that Trump exceeded his authority when he sent thousands of National Guard members and Marines into Los Angeles earlier in the summer during protests related to ICE raids.
After Judge Breyer’s decision, Newsom said that he would continue to fight against Trump, who had extended the federalization and deployment of the National Guard in California until Nov. 5, when a presidential election will take place.
“There was never a need—and there is certainly no need now—for troops to be deployed against their own communities,” said Newsom, emphasizing that “Trump can’t justify keeping the military in Los Angeles… We won’t back down.”
Trump’s move to deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles marked the first time a President deployed those troops without a request from the state Governor since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent federal troops to Alabama to protect those partaking in a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, led by Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump’s stated justification in Los Angeles, though, was for the deployed troops to “perform military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary to ensure the protection and safety of federal personnel and property.”
