The protests in Los Angeles are entering their fourth day due to the repression of immigration of the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump, during the weekend, described the protesters “violent and insurrectionists” after deploying the National Guard despite the objections of California Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.
The staggered step is causing a series of legal questions, including to what extent Trump is willing to use his authority to stop protests about the immigration rates of his administration.
President Donald Trump arrives at Hagerstown Regional Airport, on the way to Camp David, in Hagerstown, Maryland, on June 8, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
On Sunday, Rachel Scott, Senior Political correspondent of ABC News, if you are prepared to invoke the insurrection law of 1807. The last time the act was used was in 1992 during the disturbances of Los Angeles.
“It depends on whether there is an insurrection or not,” Trump replied.
When Scott asked him if he thought that an insurrection was taking place in Los Angeles, Trump replied: “No. But for Sunday night, he referred to the protesters in their social platform of truth as “violent and insurrectionist turbhes” and “paid insurrectionists.”
When he was asked to define the insurrection, Trump said: “You really just have to look at the site to see what is happening.”
Trump remarkably did not rule out the shipment of active duty marines to California after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said they were standing. An American official confirmed Monday afternoon that 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms, California, has been ordered to help in Los Angeles.
The bar to send to the active duty marines? “The bar is what I think,” Trump had said Sunday.
What to know about the insurrection law
In general, the use of federal troops on American soil is mainly prohibited. The POSSE Commitatus Law of 1878 limits the military to be involved in the application of civil law unless Congress approves or under circumstances “expressly authorized by the Constitution.”
An exception is the insurrection law, a 218 -year law signed by President Thomas Jefferson.
The insurrection law establishes, in part: “provided there is an insurrection in any state against his government, the president can, at the request of his legislature or his governor, if the legislature cannot be convened, call the federal service as the militia of the other states, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the Armed Forces, as it is necessary to suppress the insurrection.”
Another provision establishes that it can be used “every time the president considers that illegal obstructions, combinations or assemblies or rebellion against the authority of the United States make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any state for the ordinary course of judicial procedures.”
Some Legal experts have warned The law is too broad and vague, and there have been several calls to be reformed to provide greater controls on presidential power.
Police stop a protester during a protest against federal immigration sweeps in downtown Los Angeles, on June 8, 2025.
Mike Blake/Reuters
Scenes from the center of Los Angeles after the disturbances of Los Angeles on May 2, 1992.
Paul Harris/Getty Images
The insurrection law has been invoked in response to 30 crisis throughout its history, according to the Brennan Justice Center, including the presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy to disaggregate schools after the emblematic failure of the Supreme Court in Brown V. Education Board.
Most of their uses involved the federal troops that were deployed, although some situations were resolved after the troops were ordered, but before reaching the scene, the Brennan center said.
When it was last used in 1992 by President George Hw Bush to send the National Guard to Los Angeles, he was at the request of the then Gov. Pete Wilson while the riots exploded in the city after the acquittal of four white police officers accused Rodney King’s beating.
If Trump invoked the act, he would probably do it against Newsom’s wishes, something that has not been done since President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s to treat civil disturbances.
How Trump mobilized the National Guard
Trump did not invoke the insurrection law when he activated and deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles.
Instead, he cited Title 10 of the US Code, which contains a provision that allows the president to call the members of the federal service when “there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the United States government” or when “the President cannot with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
According to a presidential memorandum, Trump said he was sending the National Guard to “temporarily protect the ice and other personnel of the United States government who perform federal functions, including the application of the federal law, and to protect federal properties, in places where protests against these functions are occurring or probably occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations.”
The National Guard troops were deployed at the University of Alabama to force their undeggration, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, June 11, 1963.
Shel Hershororn/Getty Images
The memorandum declared that 2,000 National Guard troops could be deployed for 60 days or “at the discretion” of Hegseth.
The troops called under title 10 Fall generally prevent direct participation in the duties of application of the law by virtue of the Comitatus Posse Law, unless Trump invokes the insurrection law or other limited exceptions.
Governor Newsom said Monday that the State is demanding the administration of Trump deploying the National Guard.
“He called the fires and acted illegally to federalize the National Guard,” Newsom wrote on social networks. “The order that signed not only applies to California. It will allow you to enter any state and do the same. We are demanding it.”
