{"id":220697,"date":"2026-01-16T14:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?p=220697"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:22:10","slug":"trumps-threat-to-invoke-the-insurrection-act-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/civil-liberties\/trumps-threat-to-invoke-the-insurrection-act-explained","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Threat to Invoke the Insurrection Act, Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[1773,2027,1763,1756,1750,2024,1752,1755,1753,1768],"class_list":["post-220697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","metadata-aclu","metadata-both","metadata-context","metadata-explainer","metadata-layout","metadata-length","metadata-longform","metadata-narrative-frame","metadata-plain-text","metadata-voice"],"acf":{"header_layout":"standard","header_image":220741,"mobile_header_image":null,"description":"President Donald Trump is threatening to invoke the act, which is a rarely used power that Congress intended only for extreme emergencies. We break down what this means for our civil liberties. ","authors":[2492],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota this week, continuing to stoke fear and chaos in a situation his administration created by unleashing lawless, armed federal agents against our communities..\r\n\r\nThis is not the first time the president has threatened to invoke the act, which Congress intended presidents to use only for specified and extreme emergencies, in his first or second administrations. Each time, it has been clear that President Trump\u2019s invocation of the Insurrection Act would be unnecessary, inflammatory, and a dangerous abuse of power.\r\n\r\nThe Insurrection Act is meant to be a rarely-used exception to our foundational principle that the American military should not police the American people on domestic soil. That general rule exists for good reasons: military policing of civilians is corrosive to democracy and it puts our civil liberties and rights in peril.\r\n\r\nDespite this, Trump renewed his threat. He did so after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer killed 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good during a reckless and violent federal immigration enforcement operation, to which the American people have responded with overwhelmingly peaceful protests<\/a>."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_link","content_link":{"":null,"content_link_field_group":{"url":"https:\/\/action.aclu.org\/send-message\/stop-ices-attack-our-communities","":null,"title_override":"","image_override":"","hide_description":false,"description":"1,000+ events planned throughout the weekend of action","title":"Stop ICE's Attack On Our Communities | American Civil Liberties Union","og-title":"Stop ICE's Attack On Our Communities","og-image":220744,"og-site-name":""},"card_variant":"horizontal","hide_image":false,"width":"standard","alignment":"left"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Federal agents\u2019 abuses of authority<\/a> and violations of constitutional rights<\/a> are already brazen and cruel. President Trump\u2019s Insurrection Act threat is contrived to escalate conflict and intimidate people exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out against injustice and observe federal agents\u2019 activities in public spaces. The threat itself shows why the Insurrection Act is unjustified: the president would be using troops to undermine our rights, not protect them.\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ve seen this pattern in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago and other cities. Federal officers descend on communities to conduct violent immigration raids, instill fear, and profile residents based on race. When the American people exercise their First Amendment right to protest, federal officers respond with recklessness, injuring and maiming community members.\r\n\r\nBelow we break down what the Insurrection Act is, its long history, and how it could impact our communities if it\u2019s invoked."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What is happening in Minnesota?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Since December, the Trump administration has deployed nearly 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minnesota<\/a>. In response to their lawless approach \u2014 characterized by masked and armed federal agents conducting violent raids, racial profiling, and violations of people\u2019s rights, including U.S. citizens\u2019 \u2014 overwhelmingly peaceful protests have grown in size.\r\n\r\nThese protests ballooned both in Minnesota and across the country after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and American citizen. Yet the Trump administration doubled down on its tactics. Federal agents have continued their reckless raids and even shot three other people in Minneapolis and Portland. President Trump posted on Truth Social<\/a> falsely characterizing protestors as \u201cinsurrectionists\u201d and said he would invoke the Insurrection Act if state officials did not quell protests in Minnesota.\r\n\r\nBut \u201cthe real risk to people's safety comes from ICE and other federal agents' violence against our communities,\u201d said<\/a> Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project. \u201cThe killing of Renee Good starkly shows what happens when ICE operates without accountability.\u201d"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What is the Insurrection Act?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"The Insurrection Act authorizes the president to use federal troops to police civilians in certain specified and extreme emergencies.\r\n\r\nThe general rule in our system is that presidents are prohibited from using the federal military for law enforcement on domestic soil. The Insurrection Act is a narrow exception and is rarely used specifically because unchecked power is a threat to liberty and can lead to tyranny.\r\n\r\nThe ACLU and others have long criticized the Insurrection Act as far too vague, but it still has important restrictions on when presidents can use it. It contains three provisions: one that authorizes the president to deploy federal or federalized National Guard troops at the request of a state, to suppress an insurrection against the state\u2019s government. Two other provisions do not require a state governor\u2019s request, but presidents may only invoke them to deploy federal troops to suppress insurrection, violence, or conspiracy and enforce federal law when courts or ordinary law enforcement cannot, or to protect civil rights.\r\n\r\nCongress, the courts, and the executive branch have therefore treated invocation of the Insurrection Act as a last resort, to put down forcible state resistance to a court order, or to enforce federal rights when state authorities are entirely unable or unwilling to do so.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s far from the situation in Minnesota or anywhere else in the country."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Has the Insurrection Act been invoked before?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"In 230 years<\/a>, presidents have invoked the law only 30 times. Not only is presidential invocation of the act rare, it\u2019s almost always controversial. The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal opinions for the president, has generally advised caution and restraint in invoking it.\r\n\r\nThe last time a president invoked the Insurrection Act without a state governor\u2019s consent was more than 60 years ago. In keeping with the act\u2019s constraints, in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson invoked it to protect civil-rights protestors after Alabama state troopers attacked peaceful activists at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday<\/a>. President Trump, by contrast, appears bent on using the Insurrection Act based on falsehoods and to enable further federal deprivation of people\u2019s rights. Under the current conditions in Minnesota, Trump\u2019s invocation of the act would be an unprecedented and dangerous use of the military on American soil."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What happened in Trump\u2019s previous deployments of troops?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Trump\u2019s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act comes after months of legal defeats surrounding his previous deployments<\/a> of military forces domestically.\r\n\r\nIn 2025, in spite of over state governors\u2019 objections, President Trump forcibly federalized and deployed \u2014 or attempted to deploy \u2014 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago. He did so after issuing a June 7th Presidential Memorandum, claiming authority under a rarely used statute to federalize and deploy National Guard members (and active-duty military troops) without geographic or temporal limitations to protect federal property and functions and enforce federal law.\r\n\r\nCalifornia, Oregon, and Illinois filed lawsuits challenging these actions, and federal district courts in all three states ruled against the president, as did the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the Illinois case.\r\n\r\nCourts rejected the president\u2019s arguments that he alone can decide when to deploy troops and courts have no role to play. The district court in California found that troops had violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from carrying out law enforcement functions. The district court in Oregon found that the president\u2019s determination that federal law enforcement officers could not enforce federal law in Portland was \u201csimply untethered to the facts,\u201d there was no \u201crebellion\u201d or a \u201cdanger of rebellion\u201d in the city, and that the forced federalization of Oregon National Guard members violated the Constitution. The district court in Illinois found that federal officials\u2019 versions of the facts were \u201cnot reliable\u201d and identified a \u201ctroubling trend\u201d of government officials \u201cequating protests with riots,\u201d indicating \u201cboth bias and lack of objectivity.\u201d\r\n\r\nFinally, the Supreme Court halted<\/a> Trump\u2019s attempt to send troops into Chicago, recognizing that troop deployment to carry out federal law is \u201cexceptional\u201d and the Trump administration had not legally justified it. On December 31, Trump announced that he would end his deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles, and those troops have now been withdrawn. Federalized National Guard troops remain deployed in Washington, D.C., however, courts have held that because D.C. is not a state, the president exercises unique power there.\r\n\r\nThe recent threat to use the Insurrection Act is but one more attempt by Trump to circumvent the rule of law, silence dissent against his destructive policies, and further his lawless immigration agenda."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What does the Insurrection Act not do?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Despite Trump\u2019s threat to invoke the act in response to protests, presidents may not, consistent with First Amendment principles, use the military to quell or deter lawful political protests.\r\n\r\nInvocation of the Insurrection Act cannot and does not suspend constitutional protections. Far from it. The conduct of any troops deployed under the Insurrection Act is governed by the safeguards of our Constitution.\r\n\r\nNo matter what uniform they wear, military troops and armed federal agents must respect our constitutional rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process. If troops or federal agents violate these constraints, they and their leadership must be held accountable."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What will happen if President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act?","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Much remains uncertain, but this much is <\/i>clear: The most dangerous consequence of President Trump invoking the Insurrection Act is the harm it would cause for individual civil rights and liberties. To help protect ourselves and each other we need to know our rights."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_link","content_link":{"":null,"content_link_field_group":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/know-your-rights","":null,"title_override":"","image_override":"","hide_description":false,"description":"Learn more here about what your rights are, how to exercise them, and what to do when your rights are violated.","title":"KYR | American Civil Liberties Union","og-title":"Know Your Rights | American Civil Liberties Union","og-image":216310,"og-site-name":"American Civil Liberties Union"},"card_variant":"horizontal","hide_image":false,"width":"standard","alignment":"left"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"President Trump would also be placing troops in legal and ethical jeopardy, and further politicizing the military in furtherance of his partisan agenda. And he would undermine the constitutional design, which prevents direct military involvement in civilian life, except in the most limited genuine crises. Images of troops patrolling city streets are more often seen under authoritarian regimes, not in our democracy.\r\n\r\nSo \"what's needed now is not federal escalation, but deescalation,\u201d said Shamsi. \u201cCongress must demand<\/a> these mass federal law enforcement forces leave Minneapolis and rein in ICE and [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] until the administration backs down.\u201d"}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[219673],"issues":[46373],"related_content_cases":"","related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":"","related_affiliates":"","content_layout":"standard","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Donald Trump is threatening to invoke the act, which is a rarely used power that Congress intended only for extreme emergencies. 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