As protests against federal immigration enforcement flared across Los Angeles over the weekend, questions have arisen about whether President Donald Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, and send active duty U.S. military members to quell the rioting and vandalism.
The law allows the president to deploy the National Guard or other U.S. military personnel to put down an uprising that interferes with the rights of the populace if “the constituted authorities of that state are unable, fail, or refuse” to do so.
Here’s what to know.
The Insurrection Act
The law has its origin in the 1792 legislation that allowed the federal government to call up state militias “to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.”...
