Presidents have invoked it throughout history, but usually not against the wishes of local leaders, except to enforce federal law. Will Trump break the mold?
President Trump says he will consider the Insurrection Act if unrest escalates
President Donald Trump told reporters he would invoke the Insurrection Act “if necessary.”
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump says he will consider invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 to fight crime and fight Democratic protesters.I C-Managed city.
President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on October 6 that if a court were to block the deployment of the National Guard, “we would do that if necessary.” “So far, we haven’t had to. But we have the Insurrection Act for a reason. If we have to enact it, I will do it.”
President Trump told reporters the next day, “This has been invoked before.” “We want a safe city.”
The Insurrection Act, or its predecessor, has been invoked 30 times in American history since George Washington put down the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. The last time it was used was during George H.W. Bush’s defense of Los Angeles during the 1992 riots.
This law gives the president the power to send in the U.S. military to quell an insurrection or civil war, or if federal law is obstructed. Presidents rarely send troops into the country against the wishes of state or local leaders, even if they have the authority to do so.
When the president exercised his power against the wishes of state and local officials, it was in response to their failure to enforce Supreme Court decisions, federal laws, or quell rebellions against the government.
“The last time a president invoked this policy against the wishes of state leaders was to quell large-scale violent resistance to civil rights in the 1950s and ’60s,” presidential historian Matt Dallek told USA TODAY.
Claire Finkelstein, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, pointed out that, “Under Article II, the president has a duty to ensure that the law is faithfully executed.”
Dallek said that since the United States “became a multiracial democracy in the mid-’60s,” the Insurrection Act has only been used once under unusual circumstances, at the request of California’s governor, to quell a large-scale riot in Los Angeles in 1992.
President Trump threatened to invoke the law during his first term in 2020, but backed away after Secretary of Defense Mark Esper publicly opposed the move. This term, President Trump has invoked other laws that have deployed the National Guard and even the U.S. military to states such as California and Illinois, against the wishes of their governors.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Here are some of the most notable uses of the Insurrection Act. It is usually used to put down rebellions or when local or state authorities are unable or unwilling to maintain order or defend the Constitution.
1794 – Whiskey Rebellion
Although this was before the existence of the Insurrection Act, which he helped create, President George Washington invoked the Militia Act of 1792 to quell an armed uprising in western Pennsylvania where farmers were revolting against the federal whiskey tax.
It is believed to be the first and only time a sitting president commanded troops in the field, and Washington is said to have personally led more than 10,000 militia members. The federal government’s response quelled the rebellion without major bloodshed and was seen as an important precedent for how the federal government can and will use the military as necessary to enforce laws on U.S. soil.
1807 – Rebellion Act passed
President Thomas Jefferson signed the Insurrection Act after Congress formally recognized the principles established by Washington 15 years earlier. This law authorized the president to use the U.S. military, then the Army and Navy, to suppress riots and rebellions and to enforce federal laws where and when they are being obstructed.
Specifically, the Insurrection Act authorized the president to unilaterally authorize any state’s militias to federalize, use the military, and send troops at the request of governors or state legislatures.
Jefferson did so as part of his response to first-term Vice President Aaron Burr’s attempt to raise a private army to seize land in the Southwest after his political career was ruined in a duel with Alexander Hamilton.
1861 – Civil War
President Abraham Lincoln invoked the Insurrection Act on April 15, 1861, mustering 75,000 militiamen in response to the secession of 11 Southern states and the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. His efforts to quell the rebellion and restore federal authority began the Civil War.
Lincoln’s response ultimately amounted to the largest and longest use of presidential military force in history on U.S. soil, as Union and Confederate armies clashed in a battle that tested the limits of executive power.
1871–1876: Ku Klux Klan terror in the South
During the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, President Ulysses S. Grant invoked the Insurrection Act and, more recently, enacted multiple related laws to combat widespread white supremacist terrorism targeting black people and their newly established civil and political rights.
On October 17, 1871, Grant used the new Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to send federal troops to South Carolina to quell Ku Klux Klan violence and authorized the suspension of habeas corpus to combat domestic terrorist organizations. Grant’s forces arrested hundreds of Klansmen and effectively dismantled the organization. He then intervened in Louisiana, Arkansas, and South Carolina in the run-up to the 1876 elections to quell violence by a white supremacist militia known as the “Rifle Club.”
1894-1921: Pullman Strike and other union struggles
President Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to Illinois, over the governor’s objections, to stop the Pullman Railroad strike because it was disrupting interstate commerce and mail delivery. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson invoked the Insurrection Act to combat a labor uprising in Colorado, and President Warren Harding invoked the Insurrection Act in 1921 to suppress a labor uprising by coal miners in West Virginia.
1957-1968: Civil Rights Era
After Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to prevent nine black students from enrolling at Little Rock High School, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and sent in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to increase desegregation in Arkansas.
President John F. Kennedy invoked the law enforcing federal desegregation orders at the University of Mississippi in 1962, and again in 1963 after Governor George Wallace said he would “stand at the door” to prevent two black students from enrolling at the all-white University of Alabama. President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Detroit during the 1967 riots to quell the unrest after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1968 he invoked legislation that sent troops to Washington, Baltimore, Chicago, and other cities.
1992 – Los Angeles Riots
President George H.W. Bush invoked the law on May 1, 1992, after riots erupted in South Central Los Angeles and elsewhere following the acquittal of LAPD officers who severely beat black motorist Rodney King. President Bush sent in the National Guard and U.S. military to restore order after California Governor Pete Wilson and Mayor Tom Bradley requested federal assistance.
The riots were also a response to years of building racial tensions, leading to widespread looting, prolonged gunfire, arson, and violence in the city. At least 53 people were killed, more than 2,380 injured, and more than 12,000 arrested. Property damage at the time was estimated at more than $1 billion, making it the most destructive period of regional unrest in U.S. history.
