New York Riot: Insurrection

The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law (10 U.S.C. §§ 251-255; prior to 2016, 10 U.S.C. §§ 331-335; amended 2006, 2007) that empowers the President of the United States to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to suppress civil disorder, insurrection and rebellion.Show more

George H.W. Bush was the last president to exercise the authority, invoking it during the 1992 riots in LA. It was also invoked amid widespread riots in 1968 around the nation's capital and elsewhere following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. And Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy called upon it to enforce desegregation during the civil rights era over the objections of state governments.