On the streets of Chicago, leaders and activists have been clear: they don’t want President Trump sending in the National Guard despite the high crime rate there.
The president doesn’t seem to care about that. “We’re going in,” Trump said this week. “I didn’t say when, but we’re going in…I’m the President of the United States. If I think our country is in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it.”
But Illinois Governor JB Pritzker disagrees. “What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted,” he said at a rally this week. “It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American.”
So far, the courts have agreed. One judge recently ruled it was illegal for President Trump to send the National Guard to help quell immigration protests in California. That judge, along with Governor Pritzker and Democrats, points to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 that essentially says the federal government can’t use the United States military to enforce civilian law.
There is an exception, however, and that’s where the Insurrection Act of 1807 comes into play. It basically says the president can use the military to enforce civilian law to suppress rebellion or domestic violence, or to enforce the law in certain situations. It’s a bit murky as to whether a city’s high crime rate would meet that standard.
Zach Smith, a Legal Fellow with the Heritage Foundation, says there is legal reason for action. “I think it is an acute crisis in some of these cities,” Smith tells CBN News. He believes the president could legally use the National Guard if they were used to protect federal agents sent to these cities to enforce the law. “One of the core clear exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act is that federal troops can protect federal property and federal agents while they are enforcing federal law.”
Presidents have federalized the National Guard before: President Dwight D. Eisenhower did it in the 1950s to enforce desegregation in Arkansas; President Lyndon B. Johnson did it with the Detroit Riots in 1967; and President George H.W. Bush did it in 1992 after riots hit Los Angeles. However, there’s no precedent on this when it comes to high crime rates, which makes it untested constitutional waters that President Trump is ready to jump right into.
