US President Donald Trump is repeatedly threatening to invoke theInsurrection Act (the Insurrection Act of 1807), an emergency law authorizing the White House to deploy military forces on US soil. This provision would allow the president to take control over the mobilization of the National Guard, a U.S. Army reserve force that can be mobilized either by state governors for internal emergencies, both from president in cases of national crisis. This is a measure signed by Thomas Jefferson and last invoked in 1992, during the Los Angeles riots, to quell the violence following the Rodney King case.
Although courts and Democratic governors have tried to thwart his efforts so far, Trump has hinted that he may resort to extraordinary powers granted to the president by the Insurrection Act “as necessary.” The use of this rule is something that the tycoon had repeatedly suggested he could do during his first term, although in reality he never invoked it. But why does he insist on using it, despite the political and constitutional consequences it entails?
How the Insurrection Act works and what it provides
THE’Insurrection Act is a US federal law that gives the president the power to deploy the military or federalize National Guard troops within the territory of the United States to quell internal riots. By doing so, command is therefore taken away from governors and the National Guard is placed directly under presidential control. The act was officially signed into law in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson, but its current form derives from a series of statutes passed between 1792 and 1871, which define the role of the U.S. military in law enforcement within the country.
In general, the federal military forces they are not authorized to carry out civil police duties against US citizens, except in emergency situations. Instead, this law allows troops to participate in domestic law enforcement activities, such as carry out arrests or searchesfunctions from which they are normally excluded.
In essence, the provision would grant greater freedom of action for the army in carrying out public order tasks, therefore representing a different measure from those already adopted by the White House. In fact, when Trump deployed the National Guard and military units to Los Angeles during protests against his immigration policies, their role had been officially limited to the protection of federal buildings and assets.
When can the act of insurrection be used?
According to the statute, the president can invoke the law if requested by a governor or a state legislature, but not only. In fact, a series of broad and vague criteria to adopt the Insurrection Act, which give the president considerable discretion.
The statute states: “Whenever the president deems illegal obstacles, associations or meetings, or a rebellion against the authority of the United Statesrender impracticable the enforcement of the federal laws in a State through ordinary judicial proceedings, he may call into federal service the militia of one or more States, and use the armed forces to such extent as he deems necessary to enforce such laws or to suppress rebellion.”
Another section states that the president must “adopt the measures it deems necessary to repressin a State, any insurrection, internal violence, unlawful association or conspiracy” if this “obstructs the execution of the laws”. These provisions they do not clearly define the termsessentially leaving the president with the power to establish what constitutes an insurrection or rebellionand when these can be considered sedated. Specifically, Trump has implied that he has a fairly low threshold for what he considers “insurrection,” but he has also said that he does not believe that the criteria for applying the provision have been met at this time.
The historical precedents: the last time in 1992 in Los Angeles
The law has been invoked dozens of times throughout American history. The first significant use dates back to 1831when the head of the White House Andrew Jackson invoked the Insurrection Act to suppress the slave revolt led by Nat Turner in Virginia. More than a century later, in 1957the president Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect African-American students trying to enter Central High School, after the state governor, Orval Faubushad mobilized the National Guard to prevent their entry.
Since then, and particularly since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the use of the Insurrection Act has become extremely rare, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. The last actual application occurred in 1992when the president George HW Bush resorted to the rule to respond to Los Angeles riotswhich erupted after the acquittal of four white officers who were filmed beating the African-American motorist Rodney King. On that occasion, the governor of California, Pete Wilsonhad formally requested the intervention of the army to quell the violence.
The issue returned to the fore during the first Trump presidency: in 2020the president asked the governors of several states to send their National Guard troops to Washington DC to contain the protests erupted after the killing of George Floyd. Many governors accepted, but in that same period Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deal with the demonstrations, even if he never got around to doing it.
However, during the last election campaign, Trump hinted that things could be different in the future. In 2023, during a rally in Iowasaid he had been “hindered” from using the military to quell violence in cities during his first term, adding that if the issue arose again, he would “he wouldn’t have waited.”
The use of the Insurrection Act, however, would result a series of important consequences at a political and constitutional level. In the United States there is a long tradition of separation between military and civilian power: i Founding Fathershaving experienced the abuses of the British army in colonial times, feared that granting the president a unlimited control over troops could undermine civil liberties and the democratic process. For this reason, the Constitution entrusts in general to governors the power to maintain order within the borders of their states.
These principles are enshrined in the Posse Comitatus Acta provision of 1878 which prohibits the army from participating in civilian police activities. The Insurrection Act constitutes alegal exception to this ban: for decades, however, civil rights groups have been warning against the risks of this rule, arguing that it gives the head of the White House an excessively large power, with the possibility of using the military as internal police force.
