In Portland, Oregon, a pivotal federal trial is set to commence on Wednesday, examining whether President Donald Trump possesses the authority to deploy the National Guard to the city. This legal battle arises amidst claims that federal agents, stationed at Portland’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, have escalated tensions during recent protests through excessive force.

Presiding over the trial is U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, an appointee of President Trump, who will navigate the complexities of this lawsuit. The city and state of Oregon initiated the legal proceedings against the Trump administration in an effort to prevent the deployment of federal troops.

Judge Immergut has previously issued two temporary restraining orders to halt troop deployment, citing that President Trump failed to demonstrate adherence to the congressional conditions required for domestic military use. She critiqued Trump’s characterization of Portland as “war ravaged,” describing it as “simply untethered to the facts.”

Although one of these restraining orders was temporarily stayed by a three-judge panel from the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals, the appeals court has since vacated that decision. The case is now set to be reconsidered by an expanded 11-judge panel, indicating the ongoing legal challenges surrounding this issue.

This trial unfolds against a backdrop of similar legal actions by other Democratic cities, such as Chicago, which have also opposed military involvement initiated by the Trump administration. These cities contend that the president has not fulfilled the legal criteria necessary for troop deployment and argue that such actions infringe upon state sovereignty. Meanwhile, the administration maintains that military presence is essential to counteract protests that they claim disrupt law enforcement operations.

Portland’s ICE building outside downtown has been the site of nightly protests that peaked in June when police declared one demonstration a riot. Smaller clashes have also occurred since then, and federal officers have fired tear gas to clear crowds, which at times have included counterprotesters and live-streamers.

During the trial, witnesses are expected to take the stand for both sides and face cross-examination. The federal defendants will call officials from ICE, the Defense Department and the Federal Protective Service, the agency that provides security for federal buildings.

The administration argues that it has had to shuffle Department of Homeland Security agents from elsewhere around the country to respond to the protests, showing that it has been unable to enforce the law with regular forces — one of the conditions set by Congress for calling out the National Guard. It has also characterized the protests as a “rebellion” or “danger of rebellion” — another of the conditions.

The state and city argue that federal officers have at times used force that appears to be “needless and arbitrary.”

“They have deployed tear gas and pepper balls on small numbers of nonviolent protesters outside of the ICE building repeatedly, in some cases without apparent need or provocation, and without first exhausting de-escalation or other less-aggressive options,” the plaintiffs wrote in a trial brief.

Portland police have also been “gassed by federal law enforcement” and, on at least one occasion, hit with a crowd-control projectile, the brief said.

The Trump administration says the Portland Police Bureau has been unwilling to help control the protests, describing local authorities in a trial brief as “unhelpful and at times hostile.”

“The record is replete with evidence of the PPB failing to provide assistance when federal officials have requested it,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.

The police say they have made arrests when crimes have been committed, but that they also must respect the protesters’ First Amendment rights.

Communication between the federal and local authorities worsened as the federal agents surged to the building “without a clear command and control structure,” the state and city said.

“To list just one illustrative example, at one point pepper balls were shot in the direction of a PPB officer,” the trial brief said. “When confronted, federal officials responded, ‘help or get out of the way.’”

In Chicago, police officers have similarly been exposed to tear gas deployed by federal officials against protesters.

The Portland trial is expected to last three days.

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Johnson reported from Seattle.