United States

Is the Insurrection Act the ‘most dangerous law’ in the United States?

President Donald Trump has either deployed or threatened to deploy the National Guard to almost a dozen US cities, all led by Democratic mayors. He says it's to fight crime, put down protests or to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Others call it an abuse of power.

Trump has used a law called Title 10 to federalise the National Guard and deploy it under his command. But some cities have blocked him from doing that by going to court. Trump says, as "a way to get around" that, he may invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, an act that a New York Times opinion piece called "America's most dangerous law".

That's because the Insurrection Act grants presidents emergency powers to deploy soldiers on US soil. The Act is usually used to control public unrest and to support civilian law enforcement, but only when things get really bad.

For instance, in 1861, when Confederate soldiers attacked Fort Sumter and started the civil war, President Abraham Lincoln invoked the Act to summon state militias to put down the rebellion.

In 1871, Congress amended the Act by granting the president new powers to fight white supremacists. President Ulysses S Grant then invoked the upgraded Act and deployed troops to South Carolina.

Race was again the cause of the Act being used when President Dwight D Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce school desegregation in 1957.

And the last time it was invoked was in 1992, when four white police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King, a Black motorist. President George HW Bush used the law to deploy troops after the verdict led to intense rioting in Los Angeles.

More than 30 years later, on October 15, 2025, Trump continued to build his case for more military actions. This time he called San Francisco "a mess", which led to a furious response.

On October 18, organisers of the "No Kings" rallies across the US estimated 7 million people turned out to protest against what they see as Trump's authoritarian tendencies, suggesting that no matter how much power Trump wields, public opposition seems intent on reining him in.