PORTLAND, Ore. — As Portlanders await a decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on whether President Donald Trump can deploy National Guard troops to the Rose City, the commander-in-chief has already floated another way to do so: threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act.

"The Insurrection Act was actually passed in 1807, signed by Jefferson," said Laura I. Appleman, a law professor at Willamette University College of Law. "It essentially says that the president under certain circumstances is allowed to send basically the federal military to come and enforce the laws of a state."

As recently as Friday, the president brought up Portland once again.

"I hear how wonderful it is... It's not wonderful; it's a disaster. That's almost an insurrection, that place," he said.

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