Trump Revives Threat of Insurrection Act as Legal Battles Escalate
By Emma Walker, World-Today-News.com – October 18, 2024
WASHINGTON D.C. – As a series of legal setbacks mount, former President donald Trump is once again raising the specter of the Insurrection Act, a 200-year-old law granting broad emergency powers to deploy federal troops for domestic law enforcement. The renewed threat comes amidst escalating disputes over federal deployments to Democrat-led cities and a growing legal quagmire that could ultimately land before the Supreme Court.
Trump, speaking on Monday, openly discussed invoking the Act, stating, “Insurrection Act - yeah, I mean, I could do that. Many presidents have.” While roughly a third of U.S. presidents have utilized the Act throughout history, its use has historically been reserved for moments of genuine national crisis.
From Abraham LincolnS response to the secessionist movement to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s intervention to desegregate Little Rock Central High School, the Insurrection Act has been employed in pivotal moments of upheaval. Ulysses S. grant leveraged it to suppress statehouse coups and dismantle the Ku Klux Klan in the South. However, the law’s history also includes its use to suppress labor movements and quell protests, raising concerns about potential abuse of power.
The current debate centers on Trump’s attempts to bypass traditional legal challenges by invoking the Act, which offers limited avenues for judicial review.”It can’t even be challenged,” Trump boasted, claiming his legal appeals are currently accomplished. Though, legal experts predict this “winning streak” may soon end, possibly prompting a move towards invoking the Insurrection Act.
“The Democrats where fools not to amend the Insurrection Act in 2021,” argues Kevin Carroll, former senior counsel in the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term. “It gives the president almost untrammeled power.”
Currently, the administration is relying on a separate, less-defined section of the U.S. code to federalize troops in cities like Los Angeles, Portland, and chicago. This strategy has faced significant legal challenges, creating a complex web of litigation before the 9th and 7th Circuit Courts of Appeals, ultimately destined for the Supreme Court.
Troops in Oregon and Illinois are currently activated but restricted from deployment pending court rulings. A contradictory ruling in California, allowing federalized soldiers to patrol streets as June, is set for re-hearing on October 22nd, potentially reversing the current allowance.Even if Trump retains the authority to deploy troops, the scope of their permissible actions remains under legal scrutiny.
The Supreme Court’s potential role in resolving these disputes is a subject of intense speculation. While Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are considered unlikely to challenge Trump’s authority, even some of his own appointees – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett – along wiht Chief justice John Roberts, may harbor reservations.
“I don’t think Thomas and alito are going to stand up to Trump, but I’m not sure that Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett and Roberts can read this statute to give him [those] powers,” says Harold hongju Koh, a professor at Yale Law School.
The Insurrection Act, experts note, would largely circumvent the current legal battles. However, its invocation would represent a significant escalation, raising profound questions about the balance of power between the federal government and state authorities, and the limits of presidential authority in a democracy. The coming weeks promise to be critical as the legal challenges unfold and the threat of the Insurrection Act looms large.
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