Who is Karin Immergut, the judge who stopped Trump’s Portland troop deployment?
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut twice blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, over the weekend. It turns out Immergut is not a left-wing judge appointed by former Presidents Obama or Biden. Instead, President Donald Trump tapped her for the position in 2019 — a decision Trump now says may have been a mistake, saying he was given bad advice when he picked her.
“I appointed the judge and [s]he goes like that. So I wasn’t served, well, obviously,” Trump told reporters about Immergut and her ruling. Trump said Immergut should “be ashamed” because “Portland is burning to the ground.”
Immergut’s legal career and education
According to the Federal Judicial Center, Trump nominated Immergut to serve in her current role on Jan. 23, 2019, and the Senate confirmed her six months later.
Immergut was an Oregon circuit judge for 11 years before Trump nominated her to the federal bench. Prior to that, Republican former President George. W. Bush appointed her as the U.S. District Attorney for Oregon, where she served from 2003 to 2009.
As The Washington Post reported, she also worked for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr during his investigation into former President Bill Clinton and interviewed Monica Lewinsky as part of that probe.
Immergut was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated with a B.A. from Amherst College. She then received her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1987.
Immergut’s ruling
Her temporary restraining order against troop deployment remains in effect until Oct. 18 as the Trump administration appeals the case.
In her opinion, Immergut accused the White House of circumventing federal law and violating the Constitution by using the military when no significant threat or insurrection existed.
Trump has called Portland “War ravaged” and ordered the Department of Defense to federalize the National Guard to protect federal facilities, which Immergut found was “untethered to the facts” in her ruling. She added that the facts did not back up the Trump administration’s claims of mass disorder that would rationalize troop deployment.
“This nation is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” she wrote in her opinion.
Praise from Democrats, criticism from White House
Democrats hailed her decision, while the White House criticized her decision and pledged to overcome the preliminary restraining order.
“President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement — we expect to be vindicated by a higher court,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement reported by Reuters.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could rule on the case as early as Monday.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
