What is Insurrection Act?
The Insurrection Act is a United States federal law codified in Title 10 of the United States Code, specifically under Sections 251 through 255 (Chapter 13). The Insurrection Act traces its history to a series of statutes passed between 1792 and 1871 that allow the president to deploy military troops domestically under certain specific conditions.
The Insurrection Act is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally forbids the federal military to engage in law enforcement activities such as enforcing curfews, investigating crimes, or making arrests.
Key Provisions in Title 10
- 10 U.S.C. § 251 (Federal aid for State government): Allows the President to deploy the military or federalize the National Guard to suppress an insurrection within a state, upon the request of that state’s legislature or governor.
- 10 U.S.C. § 252 (Use of militia and armed forces to enforce Federal authority): Authorizes the President to deploy troops without a state's request when unlawful obstructions, assemblies, or rebellion make it impracticable to enforce federal laws through regular judicial proceedings.
- 10 U.S.C. § 253 (Interference with State and Federal law): Permits the President to use the military to suppress domestic violence, insurrections, or conspiracies that either deprive people of their constitutional rights (when state authorities fail to protect them) or obstruct the execution of federal laws.
- 10 U.S.C. § 254 (Proclamation to disperse): Requires the President to issue a public proclamation ordering insurgents to disperse before or upon deploying troops under the act.
What constitutes insurrection?
The Insurrection Act does not establish what constitutes an insurrection, but the Merriam Webster dictionary defines the term as an act or instance of revolt against civil authority or an established government.
Has the Insurrection Act ever been used?
- 1791–94 George Washington first invoked a predecessor to the Insurrection Act during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791–94, in which hundreds of farmers protested a new federal tax on the American production of liquor through violent attacks on tax inspectors and armed riots throughout western Pennsylvania.
- 1877, the National Guard was deployed during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, in which over 100,000 workers in several states participated. Most of the US rail system could not function, and around 100 people were killed in the violence. The standoff ended after 52 days when the National Guard broke the strike.
- 1894 Pullman Strike, another railroad strike in several states that shut down the railroad system, ended with the president sending troops across several states to break the strikes.
- 1914, then in 1921 the federal military broke similar strikes by coal miners in Colorado (1914) and West Virginia (1921)
- 1861 President Lincoln invoked the Act at the start of the Civil War.
- 1871 President Grant invoked it and deployed troops against the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina.
- 1957 President Eisenhower used it to take federal control over members of the Arkansas National Guard to stop the Arkansas governor from using the state National Guard to prevent Black students from entering a newly desegregated school.
- 1968 The federal military was also deployed to suppress riots after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.
- 1992 Los Angeles riots, when President George H.W. Bush deployed the federal military after several days of rioting in response to the acquittal of four white police officers who had severely beaten Rodney King, Jr. during a traffic stop.
- As of 2026 President Donald J Trump has never invoked the Insurrection Act.
Status of the Act
All provisions of the Insurrection Act remain completely enforceable.