President Donald Trump’s warning that he would deploy the United States military to any state that refuses to take aggressive action against rioting rests on a longstanding presidential power that gives wide latitude to the White House, legal experts said Monday.
But a decision to do so would be met with likely legal opposition, and strong opposition from governors seeing it as an overreaction.
“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” Trump said during a Rose Garden address as cities across the country grappled with property destruction, looting and violent police clashes in the week since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Legal experts say the president does indeed have the authority under the Insurrection Act of 1807 to dispatch the military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.
In the last half-century, presidents have sent the military to Southern states to ensure desegregation of schools and to protect civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, and to Los Angeles after the California governor sought federal help during the 1992 riots.
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The US Constitution provides the President with the power to guarantee each state in this Union a Republican Form of Government and shall protect each State from insurrection and domestic violence.
See: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiv
Article 4, Section 4 of the US Constitution follows:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion, and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. "
The Insurrection Act of 1807 and the Emergency Powers Act as amended provide broad-ranging powers to the President ... powers that expand -the President's Constitutional Powers to put down insurrection and domestic violence... by providing Congressional approval for the use of the US Military under specific conditions.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Emergencies_Act#Emergency_po...
"Congress has delegated at least 136 distinct statutory emergency powers to the President, each available upon the declaration of an emergency. Only 13 of these require a declaration from Congress; the remaining 123 are assumed by an executive declaration with no further Congressional input."
Those Governors who attempt to stop the Presidents use of military force under the Emmergency Powers Act and the US Constitution need to be aware that the US Supreme Court has ruled such use to be permitted where the State's refuse or are unable to guarantee the safety of the public... Such, emergency powers were found constitutional and were used in the civil rights movement and during natural disasters.
He warned so they are on notice now I do not believe he wants to take this route. Yet we all know there is NO way the looting and burning of businesses can go on. This now is more than any protest.