Federal judges in Portland, Oregon and Washington, DC held hearings on Friday in legal battles over the deployment of National Guard troops to the US cities, as President Donald Trump seeks to expand his rare use of the US military for domestic purposes.

In Portland, Justice Department lawyers asked US District Judge Karin Immergut to lift the second of her two orders restricting Trump’s attempts to send troops to the city. This week, an appeals court ruled the president likely has the authority to do so.

Immergut did not immediately issue a ruling on the Trump administration’s request. The judge said she would decide by Monday.

In Washington, US District Judge Jia Cobb was considering a challenge to Trump’s deployment of about 2,500 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital. The local government argues the Guard has improperly been serving as a “federally run police force.”

Trump has sought to deploy National Guard troops to cities run by Democratic officials, saying they are needed to protect immigration enforcement operations, suppress protests, and fight crime over the objections of local elected leaders.

Troops are on the ground in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and Trump has announced plans to send them to other cities, including Portland and Chicago.

States and cities have filed lawsuits to block the deployments, arguing they are based on exaggerated descriptions of crime and chaos. Courts have yet to issue final rulings on whether the actions are lawful.

In Portland, Immergut on October 4 blocked Trump from taking control of Oregon’s National Guard and sending troops to Portland. The next day, after Trump attempted to circumvent that order by sending troops from California and Texas to Portland, the judge barred deployment of troops from any state, including Oregon.

Both orders were preliminary and based on the judge’s initial assessment that there was no evidence that protests in Portland seriously interfered with federal law enforcement. Immergut has scheduled a trial next week on the merits of troop deployment.

A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals this week paused Immergut’s October 4 order while the court battle plays out. But troops have not yet deployed to Portland because the October 5 order remains in effect.