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The U.S. Department of Defense has moved 1,600 soldiers to Washington. US President Trump had announced that she would use them in the protests against racism and police violence. But can he?
Following the announcement by US President Donald Trump to use the military to stop the rioting on the fringes of protests against racism and police violence, the U.S. Department of Defense has moved some 1,600 soldiers to Washington.
The military police and infantry officers are ready to intervene if necessary, a spokesman for the defense ministry said. Minister Mark Esper ordered the soldiers to be transferred, it said.
The AP news agency reported that the Department of Defense had prepared contingency plans for how active military personnel could be deployed. According to the AP, documents from the Pentagon have shown that army soldiers should protect the White House and other federal buildings if the situation in the capital worsens and the National Guard cannot cope with the protection alone. The National Guard consists of reservists.
Trump announced on Monday that he would deploy "thousands" of US military personnel if the states and cities did not take decisive action against the riots. But can the US president even order the military to be deployed domestically?
The law, which Trump could use as a basis for his demand, although he has not yet explicitly referred to it, dates from 1807. This "Insurrection Act" allows the President under certain circumstances to use the armed forces to counter insurgency and to control riots in the United States.
The law was last activated in 1992 when there was serious unrest in Los Angeles after acquitting four white police officers who brutally beat the black Rodney King. The then President George HW Bush acted at the request of the Governor of California and only after consultation with all parties involved.
One of the prerequisites that must be met for the use of the Insurrection Act is the inability or unwillingness of the affected state to end an insurrection or to apply federal laws. In such a case, the President can call the military to help enforce the law. Before that, he must give the insurgents an ultimatum to withdraw or to bow to the law. Soldiers may only be deployed if this requirement is not met.
In some places, however, the Insurrection Act leaves room for interpretation. It is not clearly regulated whether the president can intervene militarily without the consent of a governor. Legal experts have different opinions on this.
Stephen Vladeck, an expert on national security and constitutional law at the University of Texas at Austin, said on Twitter that the federal government does not necessarily need a request from the states to use the military. The Insurrection Act let the President largely decide on the circumstances.
Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School, sees it differently. "In my opinion, this power of attorney can only be exercised lawfully without a request from the legislature or the government of a US state if the authority of the federal government is impeded," he said, referring to the example of Little Rock, Arkansas, as deployed as soldiers to give black students access to a school that the state was illegally denying them.
Similar cases in which blacks were denied access to public buildings occurred in several southern states in the 1950s and 1960s. Kent Greenfield, a professor of constitutional law at Boston College, sees an important difference compared to the current situation. At that time, the southern states refused to enforce federal law - which the governors would not do in today's riots that counter the riots.
Trump's announcement that he wanted to use the military against protesters was followed by defenses from democratically governed states. So the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, the CNN broadcaster, said in no way could Trump simply send soldiers to his state. "It is illegal." He couldn't imagine that any governor would allow that. Pritzker went on to say that Trump himself is fueling racist tensions every day. "The man is a racist. He has to go."
Most recently, the AP news agency reported that Trump appears to be refraining from carrying out an internal military operation. Responses to demonstrations this week showed that local governments across the country are in a position to restore order, according to the AP, White House officials said they wanted to remain anonymous.
Trump credited himself that the demonstrations continued relatively calmly compared to the previous days as a success. "DC had no problems last night. Many arrests. Good job for everyone. Overwhelming strength. Domination," he tweeted after heavily armed National Guard and federal police officers spread out in the city. He added "(thank you, President Trump!)".
