What is the Insurrection Act?
The Insurrection Act of 1807, originally passed in 1792, is a United States law that allows the president to deploy the military to suppress an insurrection inside the borders of the U.S. The president can invoke this Act at the request of a governor or a state legislature. In some cases, however, the president may invoke the Act at their own discretion after it has been determined that the laws of the United States can no longer be enforced effectively by a state’s existing police agencies. The Insurrection Act of 1807 is the only exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents presidents from deploying the military domestically and allows for fines and imprisonment if a president violates the act.
Past Uses of the Insurrection Act
Throughout history, the Insurrection Act has been used in 30 crises. The first invocation of the Insurrection occurred in 1794, when President George Washington deployed troops to suppress a tax protest from farmers and distillers commonly known as The Whiskey Rebellion. The most recent enactment of the Insurrection Act by a U.S. president occurred in 1992, when 41st president George H.W. Bush deployed the military to Los Angeles in response to civil unrest resulting from the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
Current Situation
On January 15th, 2026, President Donald J. Trump threatened in a TruthSocial post to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests in Minneapolis and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. The protests stemmed from the death of 37-year-old Renee Good, a woman and U.S citizen who was shot and killed in her vehicle by an ICE officer on January 7th. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently declined to pursue a criminal investigation into the fatal shooting.
Operation Metro Surge
Good’s death comes on the heels of Operation Metro Surge, an immigration-enforcement operation in the Twin Cities launched by the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in December of 2025. Within the last six weeks of the operation, DHS reports to have arrested over 3,000 undocumented immigrants. Operation Metro Surge, alongside similar immigration-enforcement operations like Operation Midway Blitz launched in Chicago in September of last year, coincide with one of the executive orders President Trump signed into law on January 20th, 2025. Executive Order No. 14165 gives the Secretary of Homeland Security broad authority to apprehend undocumented immigrants and remove them from the United States.
Arguments in Favor of Invoking the Insurrection Act
Supporters of President Trump’s potential use of the Insurrection Act include Minnesota conservatives like Kendal Qualls, a Republican candidate for governor who believes Minnesota leaders should have cooperated with Operation Metro Surge from the start. Mike Lindell, another Republican candidate for governor, has stated that President Trump must do “whatever it takes” to stop unlawful protestors, including by invoking the Insurrection Act. Higher up, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has called Minnesota “out of control” to Capital Hill reporters and has not denied the potential for future Insurrection Act invocation.
Arguments Against Invoking the Insurrection Act
Several congressional Democrats have spoken out against President Trump’s threatened invocation of the Act. In a January 15 statement, House Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) said that the president is behaving in a “lawless way.” Some Republican lawmakers, including Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), have also voiced their opposition to the Insurrection Act threats, with Murkowski comparing the situation to the civil unrest that gripped the country in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Further, Republican Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has stated that invoking the Insurrection Act would cause chaos rather than calm. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also spoken out against President Trump’s potential invocation of the Insurrection Act, calling it unnecessary and “corrosive to democracy.” It is important to note that the ACLU has already filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration for three Minnesotans whose constitutional rights were reportedly violated by ICE agents.
Future Outlook
If President Trump decides to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis, many legal scholars believe a court challenge is likely. Already, the Trump administration has seen over a hundred lawsuits filed since President Trump returned to office for his second term. However, it remains unclear how exactly the Supreme Court will rule in the case of a legal challenge to a future Insurrection Act invocation. In past cases like Martin v. Mott (1827) and Korematsu v. U.S (1944), the Court has been reluctant to question the president’s national security assessments. Yet even under this precedent, the Trump administration’s recent loss in Trump v. Illinois (2025)—where the Court refused to halt a district court order preventing the president from deploying the National Guard to Illinois—signaled a shift in the Supreme Court’s perception of executive power. An Insurrection Act. therefore, would be a major test of the current Supreme Court’s approach to executive power in times of unrest.