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| Long title | An Act authorizing the employment of the land and naval forces of the United States, in cases of insurrections |
|---|---|
| Enacted by | the9th United States Congress |
| Effective | March 3, 1807 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | 9-39 |
| Statutes at Large | 2 Stat. 443 |
| Legislative history | |
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| Major amendments | |
| 1871, 2006, 2007 | |
TheInsurrection Act of 1807 is theU.S. federal law that empowers thepresident of the United States to nationally deploy theU.S. military and to federalize theNational Guard units of the individual states in specific circumstances, such as the suppression ofcivil disorder, ofinsurrection, and of armedrebellion against the federal government of the U.S.[1] The Insurrection Act provides a statutory exception to thePosse Comitatus Act (1878) that limits the president's deploying the U.S. military to enforce eithercivil law orcriminal law within the United States.[2][3]
After invoking and before exercising the powers authorized under the Insurrection Act, Title10 U.S.C. § 254 requires the publication of apresidential proclamation whereby the U.S. President formally orders the dispersion of the peoples committing civil unrest or armed rebellion. The Defense Department guidelines define "homeland defense" as a constitutional exception to the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act; therefore, the political, military, and police measures necessary to protect national security from external threats are exceptions to the restrictions of the act.[2][3]
The Insurrection Act of 1807 empowers the U.S. president to call into service theU.S. Armed Forces and theNational Guard:
As a federal law, the Insurrection Act of 1807 replaced the earlierCalling Forth Act of 1792 that allowed the federalization of state militias. The legal language of the Insurrection Act allowed for either the federalization of state militias or the use of regular army forces to quell any rebellion against a state government;[4]: 60 however, the Insurrection Act did not stipulate any criminal penalty for insurrectionists, which penalty later was introduced by theConfiscation Act of 1862. The original text of the Insurrection Act of 1807 is:
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.[5][6]
The Insurrection Act of 1807 Act has been twice modified. The first modification was in 1861, when the federal government of Pres. Lincoln anticipated continued Confederate resistance after their military defeat in theAmerican Civil War (1861–1864); the new clause allowed the federal government to federalize and deploy the national guard and the regular army — against the will of the state government — in order to quell any "rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States".[7]: 228 The second modification was theThird Enforcement Act in 1871 (§ 253) to protectBlack Americans from attack by theKu Klux Klan. The second modification of the Insurrection Act allowed the federal government to enforce theEqual Protection Clause of theFourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[4]: 63–64 Moreover, U.S. presidents invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 during theReconstruction era (1865–1877) in the 19th century, and during theracial desegregation era to protect theCivil rights movement (1954–1968) in the 20th century.[8]
Moreover, in 2016,Public Law 114-328 was amended to includeGuam and theUS Virgin Islands under the jurisdiction of Chapter 13; §252 indicates that the “Use of militia and armed forces to enforce Federal authority”:
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.[9][10]
The Insurrection Act has been invoked many times throughout American history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was invoked during labor conflicts. Later in the 20th century, it was used to enforce federally mandateddesegregation,[11] with PresidentsDwight D. Eisenhower andJohn F. Kennedy invoking the Act in opposition to the affected states' political leaders to enforcecourt-ordered desegregation. More recently, governors have requested and received support following looting in the aftermath ofHurricane Hugo in 1989 and during the1992 Los Angeles riots.[12]
In 2005, theGeorge W. Bush administration considered intervening in the state ofLouisiana's response toHurricane Katrina despite the refusal from Louisiana's governor, but this was inconsistent with past precedent, politically difficult, and potentially unconstitutional.[4]: 73–75 A provision of theJohn Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, added by an unidentified sponsor, amended the Insurrection Act to permit military intervention without state consent, in case of an emergency that hindered the enforcement of laws.[2] President Bush signed this amendment into law, but some months after it was enacted, all fifty state governors issued a joint statement against it, and the changes were repealed in January 2008.[2]
On June 1, 2020,PresidentDonald Trump warned that he would invoke the Act in response to theGeorge Floyd protests[13][14][15] following themurder of George Floyd.[16] In his official statement, Trump urged "every governor to deploy theNational Guard in sufficient numbers" to re-establish civillaw and order "until the violence has been quelled".[17] Federal officials talked Trump out of invoking the Insurrection Act.[18] The National Guard were called during theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack, but the Insurrection Act was not invoked.[19][20]
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order requiring theSecretary of Defense and theSecretary of Homeland Security to, within 90 days, submit to the president a joint report "about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807".[21][22][23][24] On April 18th, the report ultimately recommended against invocation.[25]
In June 2025, in light ofthe anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, Trump considered invoking the Insurrection Act to use the armed forces to suppress the demonstrations.[26]
Some months later, in early October 2025, Trump again floated the possibility of invoking the act in other Democratic-led cities/states likePortland, Oregon andChicago, Illinois, even as their respective mayors and governors strongly opposed the idea.[27][28][29]
In 2020, SenatorRichard Blumenthal introduced the CIVIL Act (Curtailing Insurrection and Violations of Individuals' Liberties Act) to restrict presidential authorities outlined in the Insurrection Act.[30] The legislation sought to require the President to consult with Congress before invoking the Act, restricting the President's activation of troops under the Act to fourteen days without explicit congressional authorization, requiring the President, Secretary of Defense, and Attorney General to issue a joint certification to Congress affirming a state's reluctance or inability to enforce the laws, thus justifying the use of the military, and prohibiting active duty troops from performing law enforcement actions unless authorized by law.[31]
In 2022, theBrennan Center for Justice submitted a proposal to theJanuary 6 house committee, which investigated theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack, to reform the Insurrection Act with the intent of clarifying vague language and updating its contents to reflect issues of the present. Some of the language the BCJ identified as needing clarification includes the section outlining the circumstances in which the President can invoke the Act that reads "any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy" are legally accepted criteria for the law's invocation. BCJ argues that this criterion is broad and can possibly be interpreted to allow the President to invoke the Act to address any conspiracy, large or small, to include protests or petty criminal acts with active duty military forces. The BCJ also argued for Congress to rewrite the line "The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means," as the inclusion ofby any other means can leave open the possibility of a force not formally under the control of theDepartment of Defense being authorized by the President to act under the auspices of the Insurrection Act.[32]
Once finalized, the Enforcement Act was quietly tucked into a large defense authorization bill: theJohn Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007. Very few people, including many members of Congress who voted on the larger defense bill, actually knew they were also voting to modify the Insurrection Act. The secrecy surrounding the Enforcement Act was so pervasive that the actual sponsor of the new legislation remains unknown to this day.
