FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Victor Romero-Hernandez, Tel: 505-209-5812, Email: victor@innovationlawlab.org
PORTLAND, Ore, Oct 4, 2025. The following statement can be attributed to Stephen W. Manning, Executive Director of Innovation Law Lab.
"We believe in liberty and justice. We believe in the rule of law. We believe that these values–liberty, justice, and integrity–are the core values in our democracy and the foundation of our collective prosperity. But the President has called upon the U.S. military - Oregon’s National Guard - to take up arms against Oregonians because he wants to suppress the people, deport unlawfully, and enrich himself. The President–and his lawyers–cite false crime statistics, villainize immigrants, and wrongly claim that disagreement with the President’s ideology is rebellion.
Today, the Court ruled for the people and for liberty.
Courts check executive power. This is particularly critical when the executive is deploying military force against its own citizens. Calling out the military–the federalized Oregon National Guard– against the people of Oregon is unnecessary and a dangerous abuse of power that undermines our democracy. When the government uses military force against its own people, it threatens the safety, dignity and fundamental rights of all people. The real harm we’re facing is from lawless ICE raids tearing apart our communities.
If the military can deploy troops at the President’s whim, it will embolden them to deploy troops anywhere in the country, for virtually any reason. The military will become a partisan tool, like the military in dictatorships. The only States where the President has deployed federalized troops without the Governor’s consent are Oregon and California; he has not done so in any Republican-led State, despite homicide rates far surpassing those of Oregon and California, and Texas being the only state where multiple shootings at ICE facilities have taken place this year.
The President is willing to ignore the law and we call on the Courts to check that unlawful use of power. The President made clear in his recent address to the military’s top officials, during which he stated that Democratic-led cities are “dangerous” and should be used “as training grounds” for the military.
He is wrong and the Court has sided with Oregonians and the rule of law. Oregon is no training ground for dictators. Oregon is home to brilliant, diverse, productive, and creative Oregonians."
Download the order.
