U.S. President Donald Trump. AP=Yonhap News. 

Federal appeals court judges appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump have once again sided with Trump in legal battles between his administration and governments in states where Democrats have strong support.

According to U.S. media, including CNN, on the 20th (local time), a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Trump administration can deploy the National Guard in Portland, Oregon.

The panel granted the U.S. Department of Justice's request to stay a lower court's order that had temporarily blocked the deployment of the National Guard. This appeals court decision allows for the deployment of the National Guard until the final outcome of the ongoing legal dispute is determined.

Of the three judges who heard the case, two, appointed by President Trump, ruled that deploying the National Guard was an appropriate response to the damage to federal buildings and threats against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Portland.

In contrast, Judge Susan Graber, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, stated in a dissenting opinion, "Today's decision is beyond simply absurd," and argued that it "undermines fundamental constitutional principles, including the state's control over its militia and the people's rights to assemble and protest government policies."

Previously, the Trump administration had argued that deploying the National Guard was necessary due to the intense protests occurring around ICE facilities in downtown Portland.

Protests near an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, on the 18th. Reuters=Yonhap News. 

Attorneys for the state of Oregon and the city of Portland immediately filed a petition for an en banc rehearing with the Court of Appeals. An en banc rehearing is heard by the chief judge of the appeals court and 10 randomly selected judges.

The appeals court's ruling came shortly after President Trump threatened to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco, claiming that crime is rampant in cities with a strong Democratic presence.

In an interview with Fox News the previous day, President Trump said, "San Francisco really used to be one of the greatest cities in the world, but it went down the wrong path about 15 years ago. We're going to go into San Francisco and make it great again."

President Trump described the cities where he felt military deployment was necessary as almost entirely "Democrat-run" cities, characterizing these areas as unsafe and in a state of "disaster."

California Governor Gavin Newsom, considered a potential future presidential contender for the Democratic party, shared this interview with President Trump on X (formerly Twitter) and retorted, "Fact Check: Nobody wants you here. You will ruin one of the best cities in America."

Yonhap News