Federal agents, including members of the Department of Homeland Security, the Border Patrol, and police officers, attempt to keep protesters back outside a downtown U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on Oct. 6, 2025 in Portland, Oregon. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Still, the appeals court ruling has limited practical implications, at least for now.
Writing for the majority of the 9th Circuit, Judges Ryan Nelson and Bridget Bade stressed on Monday that they could not evaluate a second emergency order that was issued by the lower court judge late last week, after Trump attempted to deploy federalized National Guard troops from California to the City of Portland.
The second order from U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut clarified that Trump can not deploy any federalized troops to Portland.
The past 48 hours have seen a flurry of action from lawyers for the Justice Department and the states of Oregon and California, as the Trump administration asked Immergut to dissolve her second temporary restraining order, in light of the appeals court ruling.
Meanwhile, lawyers for Oregon and California urged the judge to keep the second emergency order in place until the 9th Circuit can vote on their request to evaluate the case en banc, or in with the full appellate court bench.
Washington, Aug. 20 — National Guard troops were stationed at Union Station as commuters and tourists arrived. (Fox News Digital/Emma Woodhead) (Fox News Digital/Emma Woodhead)
In order to review the case, 15 of the 29 judges on the 9th Circuit must agree to take it up, and further action is expected before Friday.
Otherwise, relief could come in the form of Supreme Court action. The Trump administration appealed to the high court a lower court's injunction that blocked its deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.
In the interim, court challenges continue to play out in the handful of other Democratic-led cities where Trump has launched his federalization effort. A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on Friday will hold a hearing to evaluate the status of Trump's deployment of some 2,500 National Guard troops in the nation's capital, after the city's attorney general suggested in a court filing that the effort could stretch through summer 2026.
The Trump administration also re-filed its motion to stay the district court's injunction centered on the Chicago deployments to the 7th Circuit of Appeals, citing their victory in the 9th Circuit.
Trump has sought to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities despite stated opposition from local and state leaders. Senior administration officials have argued that the deployment is a necessary step to crack down on what they say is an uptick in violent crime and protect against threats from protesters, including anti-ICE demonstrations in many downtown areas.
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Democrats have countered that Trump's descriptions are hyperbolic and inaccurate, and are merely a legal pretext for Trump to try to "federalize" Democratic-led cities. They've used news conferences to highlight declines in violent crime, and have argued in court that the effort to deploy federal troops exceeds Trump's authority as commander-in-chief.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI and other national news. She previously covered national politics at the Washington Examiner and The Washington Post, with additional bylines in Politico Magazine, the Colorado Gazette and others. You can send tips to Breanne at Breanne.Deppisch@fox.com, or follow her on X at @breanne_dep.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-wins-big-national-guard-case-court-fights-far-from-over