The legal battle over the Trump administration's deployment of the National Guard in California continued in a federal appeals court on Tuesday, where a panel of judges indicated they might have only limited power to to rule against the president's power to deploy troops.

The Trump administration has deployed into duty 2,000 National Guard soldiers in California, even as the state’s governor clashes with the White House over using troops to quell protests over the federal immigration crackdown.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday spent more than an hour grappling with whether President Donald Trump unlawfully federalized thousands of members of California’s National Guard to beef up security in Los Angeles amid unrest over immigration enforcement there.