The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law which allows the standing President to deploy National Guard and U.S Military inside United States borders under certain circumstances, such as to quell civil war or insurrection and restore peace (1). With so much talk of President Trump invoking the Insurrection Act, what must happen before it is put in place?
Title 10 of the United States code provides the legal basis in which each branch of military may be used, and is broken into subsections accordingly. Chapter 13 of this title 10 code in particular is what we will be looking into here, which is in Subtitle A — General Military Law (2).
Title 10, Chapter 13, Section 251
Section 251 of Title 10 allows the President of the United States to use the National Guard or US Military to stop a rebellion or insurrection at the request of a state legislature, or its governor, if a state legislature is unable to take part (3). The most recent use of Section 251 is the LA Riots in 1992, in which Californian National Guard was federalized to help quell the violence (4).
Section 252
Section 252 gives the President the power to call on a states militia or U.S Military when they consider unlawful rebellions or obstructions are taking place (5) which makes it, “impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings” (6). The last time something like this was used was in 1987 by Ronald Reagan in which he signed an executive order allowing the use of federal troops to quell a riot by prisoners in Georgia (7) or previously before that by Nixon, using the army to settle a disturbance on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (8). At such times, federalized National Guard or U.S Military must still abide by state law.
Section 253
Section 253 looks to be for the protection of civil rights in the United States. It allows the President to raise the militia or U.S Military as they deem necessary to, “suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy (9)” if the state appears to be depriving rights or privileges of the constitution to any class of it’s people and does not require the permission of the governor of said state (10). The most famous case of this is possibly when President Eisenhower ordered part of the 101st Airborne into Little Rock, Arkansas and federalized the Arkansas National Guard to protect nine black students to attend a previously all white school (11).
Section 254
Section 254 appears to give the state, and perpetrators a designated time to stop, disperse and finish peacefully before National Guard is federalized or the United States Military sent in (12 / 13).
With all eyes on President Trump and this years election, there have been calls from some such as State. Sen. Bob Steinburg of North Carolina to look at using the Insurrection Act again (14). Is it justified, will President Trump look into the Act, and how would people react?
-Trent Naz
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Source List
(1) Roos, D., 2020. Thomas Jefferson Signed The Insurrection Act In 1807 To Foil A Plot By Aaron Burr. [online] HISTORY. Available at: <https://www.history.com/news/insurrection-act-thomas-jefferson-aaron-burr> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(2) Uscode.house.gov. 2020. OLRC Home. [online] Available at: <https://uscode.house.gov/browse/prelim@title10&edition=prelim> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(3) Elsea, J., 2018. The Posse Comitatus Act And Related Matters: The Use Of The Military To Execute Civilian Law. [online] Everycrsreport.com. Available at: <https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R42659.html> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(4) Cloud, D., 2020. Insurrection Act: Would It Allow Trump To Send Troops To A State Over A Governor’s Protests?. [online] Los Angeles Times. Available at: <https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-01/insurrection-act-allow-trump-send-troops-to-state> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(5) LII / Legal Information Institute. 2020. 10 U.S. Code § 252 — Use Of Militia And Armed Forces To Enforce Federal Authority. [online] Available at: <https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/252#> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(6) Uscode.house.gov. 2020. [USC02] 10 USC Ch. 13: INSURRECTION. [online] Available at: <https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title10/subtitleA/part1/chapter13&edition=prelim> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(7) UPI. 1987. The White House Disclosed Monday That President Reagan Signed…. [online] Available at: <https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/12/07/The-White-House-disclosed-Monday-that-President-Reagan-signed/3778565851600/> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(8) Elsea, J., 2018. The Posse Comitatus Act And Related Matters: The Use Of The Military To Execute Civilian Law. [online] Everycrsreport.com. Available at: <https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R42659.html> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(9) LII / Legal Information Institute. 2020. 10 U.S. Code § 253 — Interference With State And Federal Law. [online] Available at: <https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/253> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(10) Elsea, J., 2018. The Posse Comitatus Act And Related Matters: The Use Of The Military To Execute Civilian Law. [online] Everycrsreport.com. Available at: <https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R42659.html> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(11) Clark, A., 2020. Why Eisenhower Sent The 101St Airborne To Little Rock After Brown V. Board. [online] HISTORY. Available at: <https://www.history.com/news/little-rock-nine-brown-v-board-eisenhower-101-airborne> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(12) LII / Legal Information Institute. 2020. 10 U.S. Code § 254 — Proclamation To Disperse. [online] Available at: <https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/254> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(13) Uscode.house.gov. 2020. [USC02] 10 USC Ch. 13: INSURRECTION. [online] Available at: <https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title10/subtitleA/part1/chapter13&edition=prelim> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
(14) Grant, M., 2020. ‘Dangerous’ Talk: N.C. Lawmaker Urges Trump To Suspend Civil Liberties, Invoke Insurrection Act. [online] fox46. Available at: <https://www.fox46.com/2020-election/dangerous-talk-n-c-lawmaker-urges-trump-to-suspend-civil-liberties-invoke-insurrection-act/> [Accessed 20 December 2020].
