President Trump’s power to deploy National Guard troops got an airing in two federal courts Thursday, with at least some judges hinting that the law gives him substantial latitude to make those calls.

A judge in Chicago was hearing an initial round in the challenge to Mr. Trump’s troop deployment there, while the West Coast-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was deciding whether to lift a lower court’s blockade that has prevented the president from deploying troops to Oregon.

The major question for the judges is whether the level of protests in Chicago and Portland rises to a “rebellion” or has otherwise disrupted the national government’s operations to the point that a president can federalize and send in guard forces.

“There is no rebellion in Illinois,” Christopher Wells, the state’s lawyer, told District Judge April Perry, a Biden appointee.

But across the county in the Oregon case, Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson was skeptical of the courts’ ability to question a president’s judgment too deeply.

“The president gets to direct his resources as he deems fit. It just seems a little counterintuitive to me that the city of Portland can come in and say ’No, you need to do it differently,’” said Judge Nelson, a Trump appointee. “This goes to the level of deference I think the president is entitled to.”

Some 200 federalized troops from the Texas National Guard are staged near Chicago right now. In Portland, a district judge has already blocked troops’ deployment, though the three-judge appeals panel has ruled that they can remain federalized, but not deployed, while the matter winds its way through the courts.

Mr. Trump has asked them to help restore order after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in both cities have been mobbed by protesters who have, at times, hindered operations.

In Portland, it meant the office shut down for weeks over the summer. In Broadview, a suburb of Chicago, it’s meant officers have been swarmed as they drive to the facility, and their vehicle tires have been slashed in coordinated attacks.

Homeland Security has had to funnel additional personnel from elsewhere to both cities to maintain order and keep operations going.

That, the government says, means that “regular forces” have been insufficient — and that’s one of the triggers in the law allowing federalization and deployment of troops.

“The president is entitled to say enough is enough and bring in the National Guard to reinforce the regular forces,” Eric McArthur, a Justice Department lawyer, told the 9th Circuit.

Judge Perry seemed skeptical, seeing no limit to the president’s deployment powers if it’s allowed in her case.

But Judge Nelson, speaking in the Portland case, saw it differently.

“I want to be clear. I’m very sensitive to the slippery slope argument that’s being made here,” he said. “It may well be that the forces are used in an improper way, but we don’t have any evidence of that right now. All we have is we have a federal facility under attack, or violence has forced it to close down, and we want to protect it. That doesn’t strike me as a glaring overuse on its face.”

In Portland, the government had to bring 115 additional Federal Protective Service officers from outside Portland to get ICE’s facility up and running after rioters had shut it down from June 13 to July 7.

Oregon argued that it was too far in the past to justify Mr. Trump’s current attempt to deploy troops.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Stacy Chaffin said things have cooled off substantially now, and while a troop deployment would have been a closer call this summer, it’s not anymore.

“What we do know is the circumstances at the time the president authorized the troops, whatever date that might be, they don’t rise to the level that was necessary under the statute,” she said.

She said the issues Portland is seeing are criminal activity, and it’s been handled by shifting federal personnel around the country.

“That is not a reason to bring the military into the streets of Portland,” she said. “There needs to be something more than a deficit of employees to rise to the level of such a significant incursion into the sovereignty of a state.”

But Judge Bridget Bade, a Trump appointee, said the troops have only been assigned to protect federal buildings and personnel.

That’s the same mission they had in Los Angeles, where the 9th Circuit has previously allowed the president’s guard deployment to stand.

In that case, Mr. Trump deployed 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to quell riots that had broken out near numerous federal buildings and shut down some streets.

Ms. Chaffin said what happened in Los Angeles was far more intense than what Portland is seeing.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.