President Trump’s threat to deploy military forces in Minnesota has revived debate over a law dating to the nation’s earliest years. The Insurrection Act grants presidents extraordinary power to use armed forces on American soil, though its use remains rare in modern times.
The Insurrection Act isn’t actually a single law. It’s a series of statutes dating to 1792 and amended over time, now codified as 10 U.S.C. §§ 251-255. According to a 2020 National Defense University analysis, these laws “serve as the primary rationale for the delegation of authority to the President to use military forces domestically.”
How the Insurrection Act works: Three ways presidents can deploy troops
The act provides three distinct scenarios for presidential action.
Section 251 allows federal intervention when a state requests help suppressing an insurrection. Under this provision, “the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States,” the law says.
Section 252 addresses federal authority itself. It permits action “whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.”
Section 253 provides the broadest authority, allowing deployment when domestic violence deprives people of constitutional rights or obstructs federal law. The president “shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy,” if certain conditions are met.
Before deploying forces, Section 254 requires the president to issue a proclamation ordering the insurgents to “disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time.”
When invoked, the act creates an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts military involvement in domestic law enforcement.
When has the Insurrection Act been used? Key invocations from 1792 to 1992
The law has been invoked sparingly throughout American history. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, presidents have invoked these powers in response to 30 crises since 1792.
The first major test came in 1794, under the early militia authorities that would later evolve into today’s Insurrection Act framework. President George Washington deployed 13,000 militiamen to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. As the rebels saw the army approaching, they dispersed without major confrontation.
The act saw frequent use during Reconstruction after the Civil War, when federal forces enforced new constitutional rights in the South. President Abraham Lincoln invoked the authority to suppress the 1863 New York City draft riots, a deployment that drew fierce criticism, with opponents arguing it showed the President was acting like a tyrant.
The civil rights era marked another period of significant use, according to the National Defense University analysis. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson deployed federal troops multiple times to enforce desegregation and protect civil rights activists.
In 1957, President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, to escort Black students into Central High School. Five years later, President Kennedy deployed nearly 30,000 troops to Oxford, Mississippi, when the University of Mississippi resisted court-ordered integration.
The most recent invocation occurred in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Los Angeles during riots following the Rodney King verdict. In a 2020 analysis, NDU wrote that the 28 years since 1992 “mark the longest period in American history without a domestic deployment of troops under the act.”
Why Trump is threatening to use the Insurrection Act in Minnesota
This isn’t the first time President Trump has considered invoking these powers. The Washington Times’ Jeff Mordock notes that he floated the idea most recently in June amid rioting and protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids and deportations.
Now, his threat follows several violent incidents in Minneapolis involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
On Wednesday, an ICE agent shot a Venezuelan migrant after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle during an arrest attempt, according to The Washington Times’ Stephen Dinan. Last week, an agent fatally shot Nicole Good when she allegedly drove her car at officers during an enforcement operation.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: “If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrections from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the Insurrection Act.”
The Department of Homeland Security reports making 2,000 arrests in Minnesota since December and claims officers face a 1,300% increase in assaults.
Minnesota officials counter that federal operations have inflamed tensions. Governor Tim Walz compared federal agents to a military occupation, while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the situation “not sustainable.”
What powers does the Insurrection Act give presidents?
The law’s language grants presidents significant discretion, repeatedly stating the president may act “whenever the President considers” certain conditions exist. This broad authority has made invocations politically controversial throughout history.
The NDU analysis notes that “domestic military deployments have proved politically difficult for Presidents whose critics have attacked such actions as gross usurpations of local authority by an overreaching Federal executive.”
As Minnesota tensions persist, this centuries-old law raises fresh questions about presidential power, federal authority, and the military’s role in American civil life.
READ MORE: Trump threatens to use the Insurrection Act to ‘put an end’ to protests in Minneapolis
This article is written with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence based solely on Washington Times original reporting and wire services. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com
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