California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, announced on Sunday his plan to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration. This decision follows the federal government’s action to deploy 300 California National Guard troops to Oregon, occurring a day after a federal judge stopped President Trump’s endeavor to federalize the Oregon National Guard for deployment in Portland.
“President Trump, following a court decision that thwarted his plan to use the Oregon National Guard, has opted to send 300 California National Guard members into Oregon. They are currently en route,” Newsom, a Democrat, declared in a statement. “This represents a staggering misuse of legal authority and power. The Trump administration is blatantly assaulting legal principles and executing their perilous rhetoric — choosing to disregard court decisions and treating judges, regardless of having been appointed by the President himself, as political adversaries.”
The White House has yet to provide a comment in response. When approached about the deployment, a Pentagon representative redirected inquiries to the White House.
On the previous day, a federal judge had temporarily prohibited the Trump administration from deploying 200 Oregon National Guard troops in Portland.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut, a Trump appointee, issued the temporary block, which lasts until at least Oct. 18.
In her ruling, the judge highlighted, “This nation prides itself on a deep-rooted tradition of opposing governmental excess, particularly in the form of military involvement in civilian issues.”
Following the ruling, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek expressed in a statement: “Portland is not experiencing an insurrection. There is no threat to national security. There are no fires, bombings, or fatalities stemming from civil unrest here. The true danger is to our democracy — and it comes from President Donald Trump.”
The president has clashed repeatedly with Democratic governors and mayors over the weekend over his moves to deploy National Guard troops across the country.
In addition to the lawsuit from Democratic leaders in Portland and Oregon, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, blasted Trump’s decision on Saturday to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, an idea the president has floated for weeks.
“It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Pritzker said in a statement Saturday.
Democrats also blasted the president’s comments to senior military leaders last week, when he told them that the military should “use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard.”
Before the Trump administration’s moves this weekend in Portland and Chicago, it had deployed National Guard troops to two other American cities, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Trump has also threatened to deploy troops and federal law enforcement to other American cities including Baltimore and New Orleans.
In Los Angeles last month, a federal judge ruled that the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines was illegal. Days later, officials in Washington, D.C., also sued to block the deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital.
