'Arbitrary, Outlandish, and Unjustified': Raskin Warns Trump Against Invoking Insurrection Act

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-insurrection-act

'Arbitrary, Outlandish, and Unjustified': Raskin Warns Trump Against Invoking Insurrection Act

"There is no factual predicate for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act at the southern border or anywhere else in the United States," said the congressman and constitutional scholar.

APRIL 18, 2025

After being "flooded with messages," the U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin issued a lengthy Friday statement about mounting rumors that Republican President Donald Trump "may invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 and deploy the National Guard to conduct arrests at the border or elsewhere on U.S. soil" as soon as this weekend.

Although "we have no specific information indicating that this will happen," noted Raskin (D-Md.)—the House Judiciary Committee's ranking member and a constitutional scholar—the public "anxiety arises from the fact that April 20 is the due date for a report from Trump's Cabinet on the state of the southern border called for in a presidential executive order which specifically mentions the Insurrection Act."

As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth have prepared to hand over their report, warnings and explainer articles have circulated this week. Bill Blum wrote about it at Truthdig, PolitiFactdetailed the difference between invoking the Insurrection Act and martial law, and both the ACLU and the Interfaith Alliance shared blog posts. That all followed a Waging Nonviolence piece from earlier this month laying out what to do if Trump takes the feared action.

(NOTE, more than 4 paragraphs, BUT I can bet CommonDreams has no issue with posting this IMO)


Raskin explained that "the Insurrection Act was designed for only the most extraordinary and dire circumstances, specifically when unlawful rebellion 'make[s] it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any state by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.'"

Invoking the law in the current reality, he continued, "would be an arbitrary, outlandish, and unjustified exercise of power. It cannot be the case that this is 'the most secure border in history' and simultaneously that we need to invoke the Insurrection Act to address the crisis there."

According to the congressman: "There is no factual predicate for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act at the southern border or anywhere else in the United States. The courts are open and perfectly functional (much to Trump's dismay), state and local police continue to enforce the laws, and the Trump administration routinely celebrates the safety and calm at the border."

"Trump might want to call out the troops because they look 'tough,'" he acknowledged. "That seems to have been his rationale for using military planes as props to fly immigrants to Guantánamo Bay and El Salvador's brutal mega-prison. This is plainly no justification for triggering the act, and Trump would also essentially be admitting extreme policy failure. This can be the most secure border in history, or it can be an insurrection requiring the extraordinary use of the American military in our own society. But it certainly cannot be both."

[LizVerite]

1. Insurrection.

That's rich that Trump would even dare use the word insurrection. WHO attempted an insurrection, and wasn't even penalized?

[617Blue]

2. Yes my friend, we're in the streets again. Bob Marley.

[purr-rat beauty]

3. It would be one of the biggest embers...

...to fuel anarchy

It should most definitely fuel a general strike
It should also light a fire under the butt of the military to remove him