RWers on Twitter are calling the protests insurrection, demanding Trump use the Insurrection Act

[highplainsdem]

The RWers include Dan Bongino and Tom Fitton, whom Trump likes to retweet.


As Joyce White Vance -- a former US Attorney nominated by Obama, and an MSNBC contributor -- and a friend of hers note, this tactic would give Trump a way around Posse Comitatus.

And I want to note, re reply 1 below, that Joyce White Vance and Steve Vladeck are NOT among those RWers. I'm using their tweets to explain why this tactic by RWers is a threat.


Vance:

Link to tweet

My buddy @steve_vladeck has a more nuanced take on this, saying Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act if violence continues & avoid Posse Comitatus. This is another good reason to hew to Dr. King’s non-violent approach.

Tweet she's referring to there (from Steve Vladeck, a law professor specializing in national security law at the University of Texas at Austin):

Link to tweet

2a. As relevant here, the Insurrection Act (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title10/subtitleA/part1/chapter13&edition=prelim) and 10 U.S.C. § 12406, which governs federalization of Guard troops (https://law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/12406).

When these statutes are (properly) invoked, there is no Posse Comitatus problem with domestic use of the military.

and the start of the thread it's in:

Link to tweet

Vance was referring to tweet 2a in that thread, but also note tweets 5, 5a and 5b:

5. "Okay, fine. So what are the actual limits on when the President can use Guard or regular troops for domestic law enforcement?"

A: I've saved the hardest one for last. The Insurrection Act is open-ended, leaving to the President the power to decide if circumstances warrant:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZRmbP-XsAUU7Zo?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZRmdFTWAAMJcHK?format=jpg&name=medium





5a. Historically, the real checks on abuse of these authorities have been political. The Insurrection Act hasn't been invoked since 1992—largely because domestic use of the military is generally unpopular.

But it's not implausible to argue that these statutes *could* apply now.




5b. And it's hard to imagine courts second-guessing factual determinations by the President that circumstances warrant use of the military to restore order.

Instead, the real constraint today might be *responsibility*; if Trump invokes these statutes, he'd own all that follows.

Anyway, IF you see anyone trying to argue that the protests are insurrection, do what you can to swat that argument down. Don't EVER agree with it, since this is why RWers are making that argument.

[hlthe2b]

1. You aren't meaning to infer that Steve Viadeck is a RWer, are you? He's definitely NOT

and a respected constitutional scholar. His points, as Vance acknowledges, need to be taken seriously.

[highplainsdem]

2. No, I'm not inferring that at all. I make it clear he's a friend of Vance's.

[highplainsdem]

3. I've edited the OP to make it clearer, just in case anyone else misunderstood.

[hlthe2b]

4. thanks

[highplainsdem]

6. You're welcome! Sorry it was confusing.

I saw too many RW tweets calling this crisis "insurrection" to begin to link to them, but that tweet from Vance and the thread from Vladek were worth linking to because they spell out exactly why that label is so potentially useful for Trump, why RWers want to frame the crisis this way.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. Puppetrump dances however his strings command.

[highplainsdem]

8. True.

[highplainsdem]

7. May 30 AP story saying an anonymous Pentagon official referred to the Insurrection Act:

https://apnews.com/cf9947a3ca9f3225f9645fd330403eae

Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours. The people were not were not authorized to discuss the preparations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The get-ready orders were sent verbally on Friday, after Trump asked Esper for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis after protests descended into looting and arson in some parts of the city.

Trump made the request on a phone call from the Oval Office on Thursday night that included Esper, national security advisor Robert O’ Brien and several others. The president asked Esper for rapid deployment options if the Minneapolis protests continued to spiral out of control, according to one of the people, a senior Pentagon official who was on the call.

The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial. Another official said Saturday, however, that federal troops could be deployed to Minnesota without invoking that act. In that situation, they would perform non-law enforcement duties such as providing logistics help.

[2naSalit]

9. K&R

[highplainsdem]

10. Thanks!

[crickets]

11. They should be careful what they wish for.

Given who is actually responsible for the mayhem, they're asking trump to point the guns at their own side.

[roamer65]

12. Bypassing the Posse Comitatus Act would be a bad place to go.

Dump had better not go there.

[highplainsdem]

13. I caught a few minutes of RW Red Eye Radio late last night. They were also talking about the

Insurrection Act.

[highplainsdem]

14. Steve Vladek just tweeted about this again, because of all the talk about this today:

Link to tweet

[highplainsdem]

15. Tom Cotton just called on Trump to use the Insurrection Act:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213520092

[still_one]

16. I think the insurrection act should be used against Trump and Cotton

[highplainsdem]

17. Rachel Maddow is talking about the Insurrection Act now.