By GENE JOHNSON and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

The deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., faced a challenge in a court in the nation’s capital Friday. Meanwhile, a judge in West Virginia continued a hearing until early next month, while a judge in Portland, Oregon, will consider whether to let President Donald Trump deploy troops there.

The hearings are the latest in a head-spinning array of lawsuits and overlapping rulings prompted by Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities despite fierce resistance from mayors and governors. Troop deployment remains blocked in the Chicago area, where all sides are waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to allow it.

Here’s what to know about the latest legal efforts to block or deploy the Guard in various cities.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, set a hearing for Friday to consider whether to grant District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb ‘s request for an order that would remove more than 2,000 Guard members from Washington streets.

In August, Trump issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the district — though the Department of Justice itself says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.

Within a month, more than 2,300 Guard troops from eight states and the district were patrolling under the Army secretary’s command. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist them.

It is unclear how long the deployments will last, but attorneys from Schwalb’s office said troops are likely to remain in Washington through at least next summer.

“Our constitutional democracy will never be the same if these occupations are permitted to stand,” they wrote.

Government lawyers said Congress empowered the president to control the D.C. National Guard’s operation. They argued that Schwalb’s lawsuit is a frivolous “political stunt” threatening to undermine a successful campaign to reduce violent crime in Washington.