What Is The Insurrection Act: 5 Things To Know About The 1807 Law

President Donald Trump threatened Monday night to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, but what exactly does that mean?

• Gus Saltonstall, Patch Staff

• Posted Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 3:02 pm ET

President Donald Trump returns to the White House after visiting outside St. John's Church. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to deploy active-duty U.S. soldiers to police streets if local officials cannot stop the violence that has exploded in some areas.

"If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," Trump said in a news conference in the Rose Garden.

For Trump to do so, the president would have to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.

The act is rarely invoked but has been used by U.S. presidents a handful of times over the past 200 years.

Here are five things to help you better understand the Insurrection Act and what Trump would need to do to properly invoke it.

1. What is the Insurrection Act?

The Insurrection Act has been amended several times since it was initially passed in 1807. The law allows the president to dispatch the military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection, but it might be more helpful to read a current section of the law, as posted on the Cornell Law School website.

"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, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion."

2. What does insurrection mean?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, insurrection means "an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government."

3. What does the original text of the act from 1807 look like?

"An Act authorizing the employment of the land and naval forces of the United States, in cases of insurrections:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws, either of the United States, or of any individual state or territory, where it is lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection, or of causing the laws to be duly executed, it shall be lawful for him to employ, for the same purposes, such part of the land or naval force of the United States, as shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the pre-requisites of the law in that respect."

4. When was the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked?

The act was last invoked in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King, according to the Congressional Research Service.

In recent history, the act was also used in the 1950s to enforce desegregation and in the 1960s during riots in Detroit.

5. Does Trump have the legal authority to invoke the act?

Under the law, Trump "must first issue a proclamation ordering insurgents to disperse within a limited time. If the situation does not resolve itself, the President may issue an executive order to send in troops," according to a 2006 report by the Congressional Research Service.

While one section of the law suggests that states must first request help before a president invokes the act, other parts of the Insurrection Act do not require a governor or state legislature's approval, according to CNN.

"And it's hard to imagine courts second-guessing factual determinations by the President that circumstances warrant use of the military to restore order," Stephen Vladeck, a national security and constitutional law expert at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote on Twitter. "Instead, the real constraint today might be responsibility; if Trump invokes these statutes, he'd own all that follows."

However, not all legal experts are certain the current circumstances merit it.

Eugene Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, told The Associated Press on Monday that he does not believe Trump has the authority to send in troops without the governors' permission in these circumstances.

"Absent a request from the legislature or the governor of a state, I think the only way the power can be lawfully exercised is if there were an impeding of federal authority," Fidell told AP.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.