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Washington D.C., Jun 2, 2020 / 05:00 pm MT (CNA).- After President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is ready to send U.S. troops into states to quell riots, law professors at Catholic universities said acting against the wishes of state governors would be counterproductive, but likely would not violate the law.
Mass protests and some riots have occurred in major U.S. cities and suburbs since shortly after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While 23 states have mobilized the National Guard to quell rioters, on June 1 Trump said he would deploy U.S. troops in states that have not done so.
Legal experts told CNA that the Insurrection Act, a law approved by Congress in 1807 and amended over the years, that allows the president to use the military on American soil in times of insurrection. But the statute is subject to a number of limitations, they said, and has historically been used in cooperation with state governors and not against their wishes.
Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell at the University of Notre Dame Law School said Trump “has a narrow statutory right” to send the U.S. military into states, but that in her judgment, “the right does not apply to the current civil unrest.”
Trump cited the need to maintain law and order during a period of unrest, O’Connell said, but the current protests and riots have been created, in part, because of recklessness by law enforcement through “militarized policing.”
Continued below.
Can Trump legally deploy troops? Yes, say Catholic university law profs
Mass protests and some riots have occurred in major U.S. cities and suburbs since shortly after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While 23 states have mobilized the National Guard to quell rioters, on June 1 Trump said he would deploy U.S. troops in states that have not done so.
Legal experts told CNA that the Insurrection Act, a law approved by Congress in 1807 and amended over the years, that allows the president to use the military on American soil in times of insurrection. But the statute is subject to a number of limitations, they said, and has historically been used in cooperation with state governors and not against their wishes.
Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell at the University of Notre Dame Law School said Trump “has a narrow statutory right” to send the U.S. military into states, but that in her judgment, “the right does not apply to the current civil unrest.”
Trump cited the need to maintain law and order during a period of unrest, O’Connell said, but the current protests and riots have been created, in part, because of recklessness by law enforcement through “militarized policing.”
Continued below.
Can Trump legally deploy troops? Yes, say Catholic university law profs
