Protests in Los Angeles are entering their fourth day over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
President Donald Trump, over the weekend, known as protesters “violent, insurrectionist mobs” after he deployed the Nationwide Guard regardless of objections from California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The escalatory step is prompting a bunch of authorized questions, together with how far Trump is keen to go to make use of his authority to curb protests over his administration’s immigration raids.
President Donald Trump arrives at Hagerstown Regional Airport, en path to Camp David, in Hagerstown, Maryland, June 8, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
On Sunday, Trump was requested by ABC Information Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott if he’s ready to invoke the 1807 Revolt Act. The final time the act was used was in 1992 throughout the Los Angeles riots.
“Is determined by whether or not or not there’s an revolt,” Trump replied.
When requested by Scott if he thought an revolt was going down in Los Angeles, Trump replied, “No, no. However you may have violent folks, and we aren’t going to allow them to get away with it,” Trump mentioned on the time. However by Sunday evening, he was referring to the protesters on his Fact Social platform as “violent, insurrectionist mobs” and “paid insurrectionists.”
Requested to outline revolt, Trump mentioned, “You truly actually simply have to take a look at the location to see what’s occurring.”
Trump notably didn’t rule out sending active-duty Marines to California after Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned they had been standing by. A U.S. official confirmed on Monday afternoon that 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms, California, have been ordered to help in Los Angeles.
The bar for sending active-duty Marines? “The bar is what I believe is,” Trump had mentioned on Sunday.
What to know concerning the Revolt Act
Typically, using federal troops on U.S. soil is generally prohibited. The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act limits the army from being concerned in civilian regulation enforcement until Congress approves it or beneath circumstances “expressly licensed by the Structure.”
One exception is the Revolt Act, a 218-year-old regulation signed by President Thomas Jefferson.
The Revolt Act states, partially: “Every time there’s an revolt in any State in opposition to its authorities, the President could, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature can’t be convened, name into Federal service such of the militia of the opposite States, within the quantity requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers essential to suppress the revolt.”
One other provision states it may be used “at any time when the President considers that illegal obstructions, combos, or assemblages, or rebel in opposition to the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to implement the legal guidelines of the US in any State by the odd course of judicial proceedings.”
Some legal experts have warned the regulation is overly broad and imprecise, and there have been varied requires it to be reformed to offer higher checks on presidential energy.
Police detain a demonstrator throughout a protest in opposition to federal immigration sweeps in downtown Los Angeles, June 8, 2025.
Mike Blake/Reuters
Scenes from downtown Los Angeles after the Los Angeles Riots Might 2, 1992.
Paul Harris/Getty Pictures
The Revolt Act has been invoked in response to 30 crises over its historical past, in line with the Brennan Middle for Justice, together with presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy to desegregate faculties after the Supreme Courtroom’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Schooling
Most of its makes use of concerned federal troops being deployed, although a number of conditions had been resolved after troops had been ordered to reply however earlier than they arrived on the scene, the Brennan Middle famous.
When it was final utilized in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to ship the Nationwide Guard to Los Angeles, it was on the request of then-Gov. Pete Wilson as riots exploded within the metropolis after the acquittal of 4 white law enforcement officials charged within the beating of Rodney King.
If Trump had been to invoke the act, he would doubtless be doing so in opposition to Newsom’s needs — one thing that hasn’t been finished since President Lyndon B. Johnson within the Sixties to take care of civil unrest.
How Trump mobilized the Nationwide Guard
Trump didn’t invoke the Revolt Act when he activated and deployed the Nationwide Guard to Los Angeles.
As a substitute, he cited Title 10 of the U.S. Code — which comprises a provision that enables the president to name on federal service members when there “is a rebel or hazard of rebel in opposition to the authority of the Authorities of the US” or when “the President is unable with the common forces to execute the legal guidelines of the US.”
In accordance with a presidential memorandum, Trump mentioned he was sending Nationwide Guard to “briefly defend ICE and different United States Authorities personnel who’re performing Federal features, together with the enforcement of Federal regulation, and to guard Federal property, at places the place protests in opposition to these features are occurring or are prone to happen based mostly on present risk assessments and deliberate operations.”
Nationwide Guard troops deployed to the College of Alabama to pressure its desegregation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, June 11, 1963.
Shel Hershorn/Getty Pictures
The memo said that 2,000 Nationwide Guard troops could possibly be deployed for 60 days or “on the discretion” of Hegseth.
Troops known as up beneath Title 10 fall typically are prevented from direct involvement in regulation enforcement duties beneath the Posse Comitatus Act, until Trump invokes the Revolt Act or different restricted exceptions apply.
Gov. Newsom mentioned on Monday the state is suing the administration over Trump deploying the Nationwide Guard.
“He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the Nationwide Guard,” Newsom wrote on social media. “The order he signed doesn’t simply apply to CA. It is going to enable him to enter ANY STATE and do the identical factor. We’re suing him.”
