Noah Feldman, Columnist

Can Trump Send In the Military? Probably, Yes

An obscure 1807 law may give the president that power. It doesn’t mean he should use it.

June 2, 2020 at 6:30 AM EDT

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

President Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Photographer: Bloomberg

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At a hastily arranged Rose Garden press conference on Monday, President Donald Trump announced his intention to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to send federal troops into the states unless governors were able to “dominate” protesters using National Guard soldiers. Then, after the Secret Service fired tear gas and rubber bullets at what appeared to be peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park, Trump walked a few hundred feet across the park for a photo op in front of a boarded-up church opposite the White House.

Given Trump’s track record of announcing legally problematic measures and not implementing them, it could be that his plan to invoke the Insurrection Act is no more meaningful than was his walk in the park.

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