Appeals court allows Trump to federalize National Guard troops but not deploy them yet

A federal appeals court gave President Trump temporary permission to federalize National Guard troops in Oregon, but said he remains barred from actually deploying them.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stressed that it hasn’t decided any of the weighty legal questions surrounding Mr. Trump’s moves, but said it makes sense to preserve his options for now.

“In the circumstances here, granting an administrative stay will best preserve the status quo,” the three-judge panel said.

The court is slated to hear oral arguments Thursday on an emergency request to more permanently block a lower judge’s ruling that forbade the president from nationalizing and deploying guard troops.

Mr. Trump has also federalized and deployed guard troops to Illinois, and faces a separate lawsuit there. That, too, is slated for a hearing Thursday.

In Oregon, Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, scolded the president for being too quick to turn to the military for a situation the judge said federal agencies have been able to handle so far without major issues.

“This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” she said, warning that Mr. Trump risked “blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation.”

Mr. Trump argues that core presidential powers are at stake.

Use of U.S. troops for domestic law enforcement is generally forbidden under the Posse Comitatus Act, though there are some exceptions, including when “regular” forces are unable to maintain order.

The president says anti-ICE protests in Oregon and the Chicago area qualify.

In recent days, he has said he would also consider invoking the Insurrection Act, which includes a separate power to deploy troops.

In June, Mr. Trump deployed troops to Los Angeles to quell riots after a surge of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A district judge ruled the deployment illegal, but the 9th Circuit put that decision on ice, giving the president a free hand to operate while the case develops.