Here’s What Trump Could Unleash by Invoking the Insurrection Act

The Insurrection Act is a dangerous law that gives the president broad powers to authorize far-reaching uses of the military in the domestic sphere. It is based on highly permissive standards for action and provides neither a role for Congress nor a basis for serious judicial review.

During the Biden administration, we — and many others — failed to persuade Congress to reform this alarming law. Now, in the second Trump administration, the president is threatening to invoke it for sweeping domestic military deployments in big cities across the country.

We have no illusions that a Congress entirely under President Trump’s thumb will act on this matter now. But if we see instances of reckless or accidental uses of force by American soldiers against American citizens, the public would quickly rediscover the dangers of militarizing the homeland and the politics on these issues would quickly change, too.

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