President Donald Trump suggested he could invoke the Insurrection Act if courts continue to block his troop deployments to cities nationwide.
Trump told reporters he would use the measure if people were being killed and the courts were holding up his efforts to intervene. He said his priority is to ensure cities are safe.
"We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I'd do that," he said. "If people were being killed, courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I'd do that. I want people not to be killed. We have to make sure our cities are safe."
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The Insurrection Act of 1807 authorizes the use of the U.S. military for law enforcement purposes.
The last time the Insurrection Act of 1807 was invoked was in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush ordered the National Guard, at the request of the state, to head to Los Angeles in response to riots following the trial of four acquitted police officers involved in the Rodney King beating. By the time the National Guard arrived, the riots had mostly died down, according to the Brennan Center.
Officials in Illinois and Oregon are waging legal battles against Trump’s efforts to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago and Portland.
In late September, President Trump announced that he was sending soldiers to Portland, Oregon, claiming the move was “to protect [the] war-ravaged” city. He said troops would be used to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities “under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists.”
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That move, however, was blocked by a federal judge on Monday.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said his state would sue the Trump administration over a potential deployment of National Guard members to Chicago.
