Time’s up: Trump doesn’t need permission of cities participating in insurrection to send in military

How is it that we are two weeks into an armed insurrection in Seattle, where local politicians let terrorists take over a police precinct and several city blocks and prevent all city services from entering? How is it that Americans continue to get beaten out of their cars by lynch mobs, and it appears there are no police in sight? Every Republican tells us that re-election of Trump is the most important outcome we can strive for, but he is president right now. He holds the power of the federal government. Are we really at the mercy of local governments ignoring or downright participating in the insurrection?

This question was settled long ago. State governments never had the power to violate life, liberty, or property, pursuant to Art. IV, §2, cl. 1 of the Constitution, which prohibited states from violating core natural rights from the very first day of the republic. In 1867, however, the 14th Amendment’s Privileges and Immunities Clause gave the federal government enforcement power over states that violate those natural rights, which were specified at the federal level in the Bill of Rights after states had already adopted the original Constitution.

In response to the Civil War, Congress passed a law in 1871 to authorize the president to put down any insurrection. It was the original enforcement legislation designed to put teeth into the 14th Amendment, as envisioned under Sec. 5 of that amendment, which authorizes Congress to enforce violations by states. It’s law to this day under 10 U.S. Code §253 and was amended in 2008 to apply to natural disasters and terrorism.

There are no limitations on the time, methods, or place in which the president can deploy the military to put down insurrection and domestic violence. With the anarchists desiring to relive the Civil War, it’s time to use a Civil War-era law to put down this rebellion, as the law was designed to do.