US citizens have rallied to the streets in outrage after the unlawful murder of Renee Macklin Good by ICE in Minneapolis. With ICE escalating without limitations on its authority, protestors are being further agitated due to the injustice.
In response, Donald Trump took to social media to threaten the institution of the Insurrection Act to punish citizens who fail to conform.
What is the Insurrection Act?
Formally known as the Insurrection Act of 1807, the Insurrection Act was a federal law signed by President Thomas Jefferson to empower future presidents to deploy the Armed Forces and National Guard to suppress “civil disorder, insurrection, and armed rebellion against the federal government.”
What power does the Insurrection Act grant?
Normally, the Posse Comitatus Act forbids the United States military from coordinating with civilian law enforcement. Military interference in civilian government is considered inherently dangerous to liberty.
The Insurrection Act temporarily suspends the Posse Comitatus Act, allowing the President to deploy the military to assist civil law enforcement. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as the enforcement of federal court orders (such as during desegregation) or suppressing government uprisings.
The Insurrection Act was created only to be used in crises that are truly beyond the capacity of civilian authorities to manage.
However, the Act doesn’t limit when it can be used and is still entirely too vague – which is why Trump has leaned into threatening it so much.
Are there thresholds before the Insurrection Act can be implemented?
Yes. However, these thresholds aren’t infallible. The Department of Justice 1964 Memorandum identifies three thresholds:
- A state legislature or governor must request federal assistance to put down an insurrection against their state.
- A federal court must rule that national deployment is necessary to enforce a federal court order.
- Federal deployment is necessary and unavoidable due to “state and local law enforcement completely breaking down.”
Additionally, all uses of the Insurrection Act are not allowed to override the Constitution. Federal deployment of troops is not allowed to violate citizens’ constitutional rights.
What are historical examples of the Insurrection Act?
In the beginning, the Insurrection Act was commonly used during the Reconstruction Era after the Third Enforcement Act in 1871 was created to protect Black Americans from attacks by the Ku Klux Klan. A handful of presidents used the Insurrection Act to handle labor conflicts before President Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy invoked the Act during the 20th century to enforce racial desegregation.
President Bush signed an amendment to the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, which permitted the use of military intervention under the Insurrection Act without state consent. However, all fifty state governors issued a joint statement against it and pushed for its repeal in 2008.
During his first term, Donald Trump only threatened the use of the Insurrection Act once. Following the murder of George Floyd, Trump stated he would invoke the Insurrection Act in response to protests to “re-establish civil law and order.”
Federal officials eventually talked Trump out of invoking the Act. And although the National Guard was called in response to the January 6th coup, the Insurrection Act wasn’t invoked.
By Trump’s second term, he had become accustomed to waving the Insurrection Act around. Beginning January 20th, 2025, Trump ordered the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue a joint report determining whether use of the Insurrection Act was advisable regarding the US-Mexico border. Months later, Trump threatened the use of the Insurrection Act against targeted cities like LA, Portland, Chicago, and Memphis in response to protests.
A handful of reforms to the Insurrection Act have been proposed throughout history. Due to the vague language of the Act, it provides a relatively simple path towards martial law.
Under normal circumstances, this couldn’t be a possibility since the Insurrection Act would only be used under extreme circumstances – but Trump repeatedly threatens to invoke the Act in response to civilian protests.
He alone determines what a “crisis” must look like to overrule civil law enforcement to deploy national soldiers, and we have to trust that determination will be just.