This is what the "Insurrection Act" is all about Trump dredges up the forgotten law from the 18th century - now it's causing fear

Donald Trump wants to deploy the National Guard in several Democrat-ruled cities - against the will of the governors. Now a power struggle is looming over the rarely used emergency law "Insurrection Act".

In the USA, the dispute over the deployment of the National Guard at the behest of President Donald Trump is intensifying - and with it the limits of his power. The Republican wants to deploy the military reserve unit in several Democrat-governed cities or has already done so - with the justification of allegedly curbing rampant crime and bringing protests against raids by the immigration authority ICE under control.

Several cities and states are fighting back with legal means. They see their sovereignty violated and warn of a dangerous precedent for the use of military pressure at home.

According to US media, National Guardsmen could soon be arriving in the Chicago region, reports Politico. The attempt by the state of Illinois and the city of millions to stop such a deployment was initially unsuccessful: the judge responsible will decide on a temporary injunction on Thursday at the earliest.

Trump has also failed for the time being with the same plan in Portland, Oregon: the project has been temporarily prohibited by a court.

The rhetorical approach to the conflict is striking: Donald Trump and his top advisors are increasingly using the word "riot" to describe anti-ICE protests.

"I really think it's a criminal riot," he said at the White House on Monday about the protests in Portland, before promising to "make the city safe". His adviser Stephen Miller called a judge's order banning the use of National Guardsmen in Portland for the time being a "legal riot."

Against this backdrop, a reporter asked Trump if he would invoke the so-called "Insurrection Act" to circumvent restraining orders and deploy National Guard troops where governors and mayors do not want them.

"If necessary, I will do it," was Trump's response. The Insurrection Act exists for a reason. "If people were being killed and courts were stopping us or governors or mayors were stopping us, I would certainly do that."

Originally enacted in 1792, the Insurrection Act gives the U.S. President the authority to deploy the National Guard and troops or naval units within the United States under certain conditions.

When used, the President is authorized to suppress domestic insurrections militarily or to enforce the law in certain situations.

Although often referred to as the "Insurrection Act of 1807", the Act is actually an amalgamation of various laws enacted by Congress between 1792 and 1871. Today, these provisions can be found in sections 251 to 255 of Article 10 of the United States Code.

The Insurrection Act works in conjunction with the Posse Comitatus Act, which was passed in 1878 and generally prohibits the President from using the military as a domestic police force.

Troops can be deployed under three sections of the Insurrection Act. Each of these sections is intended for different situations - however, the requirements of the Act are vaguely explained and leave virtually everything to the discretion of the President.

First, the governor or the legislature of a state can request this under section 251. This was also the case in 1992, when the Insurrection Act was last applied. At that time, President George H. W. Bush received a request from the then Governor of California, Pete Wilson, for help in dealing with the unrest in Los Angeles.

Sections 252 and 253, however, allow the president to deploy troops without a request from the affected state and even against its will.

Section 252 authorizes deployment to "enforce the laws" of the United States or to "suppress insurrections" when "unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblies, or insurrections" make it "impracticable" to enforce federal laws in the state in question through "due process of law."

Section 253 authorizes the use of troops to suppress "any insurrection, unlawful assembly, or conspiracy" in a state that "opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States, or obstructs the administration of justice under such laws."

Officials in Chicago and Portland are highly unlikely to request Section 251 assistance given the resistance to Trump's plans there. Trump would have to justify the application of the law in a different way.

The Insurrection Act does not contain any definitions of the terms "insurrection", "rebellion" or other key terms used in determining the conditions for deployment. In the absence of statutory guidance, the Supreme Court ruled early on that this question was for the President alone to decide.

However, there are exceptions: In later cases, the Supreme Court has indicated that courts may intervene if the President acts in bad faith, "exceeds the permissible bounds of honest judgment," commits a manifest error, or acts in a manner that is clearly unauthorized by law.

The Insurrection Act does not authorize the proclamation of martial law. The term "martial law" has no fixed definition, but is generally understood to be a power that allows the military to assume the role of civilian government in an emergency. In contrast, the Insurrection Act generally allows the military to support civilian authorities (whether federal or state), but not to replace them.

The "Insurrection Act" has been used repeatedly throughout American history for a variety of reasons. Presidents George Washington and John Adams used it in response to early insurrections against federal power. President Abraham Lincoln invoked it at the beginning of the Civil War, and President Ulysses Grant used it to fight the Ku Klux Klan in the 1870s.

Several other presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Rutherford Hayes and Grover Cleveland, used the Insurrection Act to send troops to intervene in labor disputes - always on the side of employers. Most famously, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson used the Insurrection Act during the civil rights movement to enforce federal court orders to desegregate schools and other institutions in the South.