The Insurrection Act
The Insurrection Act Joyce Vance Apr 3 Can Trump shut down protests using the military under the Insurrection Act ? What would it take? The answer is complicated, but as more and more protests take place, understanding that legal terrain has become increasingly important. While invocation of the Act doesn’t look imminent, it’s always good to understand the law in advance. That’s our mission tonight. First, a reminder about the importance of peaceful, nonviolent protests, the approach successfully adopted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to fuel the civil rights movement in the 1960s. When Dr. King organized sit-ins in public spaces in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, the images that were projected across the country showed white Birmingham police officers turning pressurized hoses and aggressive police dogs against peaceful demonstrators. Peaceful protests forced Birmingham’s entrenched, racist police chief Bull Connor to resign. Public spaces like lunch counters and bus stations in ...