Did a Supreme Court Loss Embolden Trump on the Insurrection Act?
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh sometimes says the quiet part out loud. He did that last month when the Supreme Court refused to let President Trump deploy National Guard troops in Illinois.
The decision was a rare loss for the administration at the court, and it seemed to prompt Mr. Trump to abandon his efforts to deploy troops in Illinois, Oregon and California.
But Justice Kavanaugh, in a footnote in a concurring opinion, suggested that the ruling could be a speed bump on the road to greater presidential power. He pointed to the possibility of Mr. Trump invoking a different law, the Insurrection Act, to send more conventional military troops to American cities.
Less than a month later, Mr. Trump suggested he might do exactly that in response to violence and protests in Minneapolis.
The decision was a rare loss for the administration at the court, and it seemed to prompt Mr. Trump to abandon his efforts to deploy troops in Illinois, Oregon and California.
But Justice Kavanaugh, in a footnote in a concurring opinion, suggested that the ruling could be a speed bump on the road to greater presidential power. He pointed to the possibility of Mr. Trump invoking a different law, the Insurrection Act, to send more conventional military troops to American cities.
Less than a month later, Mr. Trump suggested he might do exactly that in response to violence and protests in Minneapolis.
