Donald Trump hasn’t yet reached the point at which he’s deliberately and explicitly defied federal court orders, but make no mistake: The president and his team have gone to dramatic lengths to circumvent judicial rulings they didn’t like.
Arguably, the most dangerous of such efforts, in which the Republican administration is dancing precariously along a profoundly radical line, is currently underway. The New York Times reported:
A federal judge on Sunday night blocked the Trump administration from deploying hundreds of out-of-state National Guard troops to Oregon, even as President Trump turned to the Texas guard in a widening hunt for military forces to send to Democratic cities.
Let’s pause to review how we arrived at this point, because as Columbia University political scientist Lindsay P. Cohn summarized, Americans are now watching “the adjudication of some of the most important constitutional issues of federalism, executive discretion, and judicial review” since the 19th century.
About a month ago, the president raised the prospect of deploying the Guard to Portland, Oregon, because of something he’d seen on television the night before. It’s not altogether clear what he saw or whether the footage was from five years ago.
Nine days ago, Trump followed up on this, announcing publicly that he was directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “provide all necessary Troops” to Portland, adding that he was also “authorizing Full Force, if necessary.” (It wasn’t clear what that meant, exactly, though it sounded as though the American president was authorizing the use of military force against Americans on American soil.)
The White House added soon after that the deployments were necessary to end “the radical left’s reign of terror in Portland” — which did not and does not exist — adding that Oregon’s largest city is “war-ravaged” — a description of conditions with no basis in reality.
Local and state officials filed suit and succeeded: On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, blocked the president from deploying 200 National Guard troops to Portland.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote.
“This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation,” she added.
The White House did not take the news well. Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller characterized the restraining order as “legal insurrection,” adding that he believed Guard deployments were “an absolute necessity” in order to, among other things, protect “the Republic itself.”
For his part, the president told reporters that Portland is “burning to the ground” (again, it’s really not), adding, “All you have to do is look at the TV.” The Republican concluded, in reference to a federal judge he appointed, “That judge ought to be ashamed of himself.” (Immergut is a woman. It’s not clear why Trump mis-gendered her.)
But the West Wing did far more than just whine and peddle nonsense. Indeed, as the weekend progressed, Trump also tried to send hundreds of California National Guard troops to Portland, while mustering hundreds more from Texas. In other words, as the incumbent American president sees it, there’s an (imaginary) crisis unfolding in Oregon, which he intends to resolve by deploying Guard troops from other states in opposition to the wishes of state and local officials in Oregon. I realize the phrase “constitutional crisis” is sometimes used unnecessarily, but once in a while, it’s not altogether hyperbolic. The aforementioned Times report added, “Judge Immergut, an appointee of President Trump, called an emergency hearing Sunday, then broadened her restraining order to cover ‘the relocation, federalization or deployment of members of the National Guard of any state or the District of Columbia in the state of Oregon,’ telling Justice Department lawyers that the president was ‘in direct contravention’ of her order.” The Trump-appointed judge went on to note that the White House’s assessment about violent civil unrest in Portland was “untethered to facts.” All of which is to say, the rule of law is holding on — for now. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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