A judge is about to decide whether the government violated a temporary restraining order when officials refused to pause National Guard soldiers going into Portland, Oregon.
The full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Tuesday night to hear arguments on the order that paused the question of whether President Donald Trump could legally deploy Oregon's own troops to Portland.
That full case returned to court on Wednesday when Judge Karin Immergut said she would decide on whether to hold the government in contempt, Oregon Capitol Chronicle reporter Alex Baumhardt wrote on Bluesky.
"We’re in a quick break right now. The biggest revelation is that the feds might be in contempt of court for defying judges temporary restraining order," wrote Baumhardt. "Turns out they sent Oregon Guard to Portland ICE from 11 pm to 2 am Oct. 4 to 5, six hours after judge ordered them not to."
New evidence was presented about the federal government firing on local law enforcement with pepper balls and chemical gas, Michael Popok pointed out on his daily podcast.
TPM's Kate Riga, who covers mostly Supreme Court issues, relayed that Commander Franz Schoening who is from the Portland Police Bureau "describes a protest in early October outside the ICE facility featuring lots of 'older' people - says it was 'startling' to watch federal officers use tear gas on the crowd, that it wasn't 'best practices' or justified."
Riga said that there appears to be a "pattern emerging" in the trial room. The "commander keeps describing "indiscriminate' force used, unprompted, by federal officers against protesters, and DOJ jumps in with an objection to break up flow of testimony. Judge Immergut consistently overruling objections."
"Commander describing how federal officers' 'unpredictable' use of force makes the local police's job hard/puts them at risk. Says there was a good relationship between organizers & police re traffic hazards/blocking streets, but that it broke down after federal officers teargassed protesters 10/4."
President Donald Trump has alleged that the National Guard is necessary because his "people" told him that Portland was burning to the ground.
