Memo to Congress: repeal or amend the Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C §§ 251–255)

Check out this recent report by Morgan Cloud with the provocative title “Trump Could Legally Use the U.S. Military as Domestic Law Enforcers” (2 December 2023). As it happens, this possibility is not just liberal media hype. The incumbent president (Joe Biden) not only appears to be senile for all intents and purposes; his main rival, Donald J. Trump, is still the front-runner in next year’s presidential election. More importantly, as I explain in-depth in my 2019 University of Arkansas law review article “Domestic Constitutional Violence” (see here or here), there is a 200-year body of law, now codified in volume 10 of the U.S. Code (§§ 251–255), authorizing the president to unilaterally use military force within the United States to deal with sundry domestic dangers. Maybe the Congress should revisit these perilous laws … before it’s late!

Photo illustration of former President Donald Trump, scenes from the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 and scenes of the National Guard during the Rodney King riots in 1992.
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About F. E. Guerra-Pujol

When I’m not blogging, I am a business law professor at the University of Central Florida.
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