Can Trump use the Insurrection Act Against the Left?

President Donald Trump on October 6th said he may consider invoking the Insurrection Act in Portland, Oregon if necessary. So far, it hasn't been necessary. "We have an Insurrection Act for a reason," he told reporters in the Oval Office. "If I had to enact it, I'd do that. If, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors and mayors were holding us up, which they are, sure, I'd do that. I mean, I want to make sure the people aren't killed.

We have to make sure that our cities are safe." The Insurrection Act is one of the president's broadest emergency powers, authorizing the deployment of military forces domestically to suppress rebellion or domestic violence. So let me give this to you real clearly.

This is the relevant part of the Insurrection Act. Uh, with resistance to ICE in many blue cities, there's been a lot of talk about Trump invoking this. There are other lesser statutes he can employ, but this is the big gun. It is intentionally gives the president enormous freedom and power to put down resistance to the law. Whenever the president considers that unlawful obsr- uh, obstruction, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impractical to enforce the laws of the United States in any state by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into federal service such as the militia of any state and use much such uh, much of the armed forces as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.

So first, it's discretionary to employ. "Whenever the president considers" is the language l- it leaves no room for judicial review. By design, it is up to the president to determine when the predicate it, it predicates the invocation of the act. second, this phrase, "unlawfully obstructs, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, makes it impractical to enforce the laws of the United States in any state by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings," seems to fit per- perfectly with what's going on in places like Portland or Chicago.

Okay? third, the discretionary language again says, "As he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion." It's entirely up to the president under this statute. You may think it's a bad idea. I'm not so sure it is, but I don't think it's a good idea for state and local governments to have a veto on federal law enforcement actions like ICE and immigration law, which is totally under the guise of the federal government.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/trump-says-he-may-invoke-insurrection-act-in-portland-if-necessary-5925575