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WASHINGTON (AFP)
A US federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump's National Guard deployment to Portland, Oregon is "unlawful" and ordered it permanently blocked.
The Republican president has sent the National Guard to three Democratic-led cities this year -- Los Angeles, the capital Washington, and Memphis -- but his efforts to deploy soldiers in Portland and Chicago have been tied up in the courts.
Trump has repeatedly called the Oregon city "war-ravaged" and riddled with violent crime. But District Judge Karin Immergut -- a Trump nominee -- rejected the administration's claim justifying the deployment of National Guard troops to Oregon.
"With respect to the deployment of any state's National Guard to Oregon, this permanent injunction order is in full force and effect," Immergut wrote.
The ruling supersedes Immergut's interim order that had temporarily blocked the deployment to Portland.
The Trump administration could appeal Friday's ruling, with the possibility that the case ultimately goes before the US Supreme Court.
