Despite protests from some governors, President Donald Trump has the legal authority to send active-duty military personnel to states to help put down violent demonstrations, law experts told The Washington Post on Tuesday.
Even though the Posse Comitatus Act forbids the domestic use of military for law enforcement purposes without specific congressional authorization, University of Texas Law School Prof. Stephen Vladeck said the Insurrection Act, gives the president the right to do so under certain circumstances, especially if state authorities are unable to give their residents the protection of law.
Although its modern use is rare, the Insurrection Act has been invoked as recently as 1992 during riots in California over the beating by Los Angeles policemen of unarmed motorist Rodney King, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
In that case, however, the state’s governor requested it.
Vladeck pointed out other instances in which the act was used, included during the 1950s, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the Army into Little Rock to desegregate its schools.
Retired West Point law Prof. Gary Solis agreed that, even if state and local officials likely “would fight tooth and nail to keep federal troops out,” the Insurrection Act “does give the executive extraordinarily broad power to assemble federal troops to restore order in the various states.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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