In July 2020, First Unitarian Church of Portland joined the Western States Center as a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit claiming that our right to free speech and the expression of our religious imperative to protest injustice was violated when the Trump Administration sent federal Customs and Border Patrol agents to violently repress protests in the streets of Portland. The Biden Administration issued an Executive Order reversing those actions of the previous administration. Federal Judge Mosman, who presided over this lawsuit, dismissed the case as a result of President Biden’s Executive Order. The Western States Center shared the following update in their weekly email.

Last Friday, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order which reversed a number of actions taken by the Trump Administration. One of these was the harmful order which provided the purported legal basis for the de-facto invasion of Portland by federal troops last July.

The June 26th order, which claimed to “combat recent criminal violence” by “rioters, arsonists, and left-wing extremists,” was cited by CBP as the authorization for its presence on the streets of Portland, where federal agents in unmarked cars detained protesters far from federal property and against the wishes of state and local authorities. Accompanying federal troops to Portland was Chad Wolf, the Acting Homeland Security Secretary, who released an inflammatory statement attacking local officials, law enforcement, and protestors.

Sending federal troops to Portland was never about public safety – it was about drawing a violent line between what white nationalists, authoritarians, and their sympathizers view as “real Americans,” and the rest of us.

Along with local allies and elected officials, we filed suit to restore Portlanders’ constitutional rights and bring an end to the armed federal presence in our city, and issued clear statements in defense of Portlanders’ right to peacefully protest. We won a preliminary injunction from a Bush-appointed federal judge last fall, modeling an approach to protecting constitutional rights locally that was later duplicated by advocates for inclusive democracy in several other jurisdictions.

While the injunction was welcome, there was more to do to resolve the Trump administration’s actions. We were pleased and relieved to see the Executive Order, which marks the final nail in the coffin of Trump’s attack on Portland. We hope it brings a measure of reassurance to Portlanders who were victimized by federal troops.