Trump threatens Minnesota with Insurrection Act

What happened

President Donald Trump said on social media Thursday he might invoke the Insurrection Act to “quickly put an end to the travesty” of “professional agitators and insurrectionists” in Minnesota “attacking the Patriots of ICE.” The rarely used 1807 law allows presidents to deploy the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement under limited circumstances.

Tensions have risen in Minneapolis since more than 2,000 immigration agents arrived there, with videos showing them using violent tactics against citizens and immigrants alike. ICE agents have faced increasingly angry crowds, armed with whistles and cameras, since an agent fatally shot Renee Good in her car last week. A Venezuelan immigrant was shot in the leg by another ICE agent on Wednesday, sparking more protests.

Who said what

Trump has “previously threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act over tensions in blue-leaning cities,” The Wall Street Journal said, but “he hasn’t yet used the law.” The Supreme Court ruled last month that his unilateral National Guard deployments to Chicago and other Democratic cities exceeded his authority.

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Invoking the law “would fulfill a long-term desire of Trump’s,” Politico said. “He views the Insurrection Act as the epitome of executive power.” But according to legal experts, using the law in this instance “would be an extraordinary — and potentially illegal — measure,” The Washington Post said. Trump would be “the only commander in chief to use the 19th-century law to send troops to quell protests that started because of federal officers the president already has sent to the area,” The Associated Press said.

“This would be a flagrant abuse of the Insurrection Act in a way that we’ve never seen,” Joseph Nunn, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the AP. Trump “can’t intentionally create a crisis, then turn around to do a crackdown.” Using the Insurrection Act here would be “a historical outlier,” since the violence Trump wants to end “is being created by the federal civilian officers” he sent, Syracuse University expert William Banks agreed. But courts typically “defer to the president” on military matters, so Minnesota would have a “tough argument to win” if it mounts a legal challenge.

What next?

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) urged Trump on social media to “turn the temperature down” and “stop this campaign of retribution.” He also asked Minnesotans to “speak out loudly, urgently but also peacefully,” and not “fan the flames of chaos.”