AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The Pentagon has readied 1,500 active-duty soldiers for possible deployment to Minnesota, a U.S. official has confirmed to NPR. That official spoke anonymously, as they were not authorized to speak publicly. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz mobilized the state's National Guard yesterday to help local law enforcement in case they're needed. President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis, which would allow him to deploy the military to assist federal law enforcement. To help us understand all of this, we're joined by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf, who's in Minneapolis. Good morning.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
RASCOE: So what can you tell us about these 1,500 troops that the Pentagon has put on standby?
LONSDORF: Yeah. According to that official, those troops are with the Army's 11th airborne division, which is based in Alaska, and specializes in cold weather operations. Just a note - it's been very cold here in Minneapolis the past few days. Those troops have been placed on prepare-to-deploy orders in case the situation here escalates. NPR reached out to the Pentagon to confirm. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, quote, "the Department of War is always prepared to execute the orders of the commander in chief if called upon." But to be clear, the situation on the ground here has been relatively quiet the past few days. There were some protests yesterday, including an anti-immigration event planned by a conservative activist and January 6 rioter with a counterprotest also planned. But it was really small, mostly counterprotesters letting that activist know he was not welcome in the city, and it dissipated fairly quickly. Minnesota officials here have been very clear in recent days, urging calm among residents.
RASCOE: What does it mean that Governor Walz has mobilized the state National Guard?
LONSDORF: Yeah. There was a lot of concern leading up to that protest yesterday that it might escalate. And it was around that same time that Walz mobilized the Guard here to support state patrol. Walz had had the National Guard on standby, so this is basically one step up from that. A spokesperson for the Guard clarified that troops are not deployed to the streets at this time but that they are, quote, "staged and ready to respond."
You know, one thing I thought was interesting - in a post on X, the Minnesota Guard said that if troops are deployed by Walz, they will be wearing bright yellow reflective vests over their uniforms to, quote, "help distinguish them from other agencies in similar uniforms." And this is different from what we've seen in other places in the country where National Guard troops have been federalized by President Trump and deployed to cities, and local residents have often said it's difficult to tell them apart from federal agents.
RASCOE: President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minneapolis as recently as a few days ago.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
RASCOE: Tell us more about this.
LONSDORF: Yeah. The Insurrection Act is a federal law. It's around 200 years old. It would allow Trump to take control of the state's National Guard or deploy active-duty forces here in response to a, quote, "rebellion" and then allow them to assist in federal law enforcement. Trump had threatened it last week and then walked that threat back the next day, saying that he didn't see, quote, "any reason" to invoke it right now. But the threat is still hanging in the air here, and certainly now that troops are on standby. Trump has talked about invoking the Insurrection Act many times, especially in recent months for various reasons. So this is not something we haven't heard from him before. But many of the legal experts I've talked to in the past few days think it's just way too early to be talking about the Insurrection Act here in Minneapolis, that the situation on the ground here right now does not warrant it. Here's Joseph Nunn. He's an attorney at the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program.
JOSEPH NUNN: The Insurrection Act is a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type of tool. It is designed for situations in which civilian authorities are overwhelmed by some crisis, not there are protests, not even there are violent protests.
LONSDORF: He says he thinks invoking it right now would be a misuse of the law.
RASCOE: Now, President Trump often says that the Insurrection Act has been invoked by other presidents frequently. Is that true?
LONSDORF: That's not exactly true. It has certainly been used before, most recently by George H.W. Bush in 1992 during the LA riots, which killed dozens of people, caused a lot of destruction. But that was at the request of California's governor. In the modern era, the Insurrection Act has only been used for either civil rights enforcement or responding to civil unrest at the request of the state governor. What would be different about this time, if Trump does invoke it, is that it would check neither of those boxes. Governor Walz has made it very clear more federal help is not needed here.
RASCOE: If Trump did invoke the Insurrection Act, what could that possibly look like?
LONSDORF: Well, one thing it wouldn't look like is martial law. People often mistakenly conflate the two. The Insurrection Act is the military being brought in to assist civilian authorities with law enforcement, not take their place. But if it did happen, Trump could seize control of the state's National Guard. He could also deploy any active-duty military to the city - likely those 1,500 troops from Alaska. The state's attorney general's office here has said that they are ready to file a lawsuit to block it if it happens. But it's also hard to say how long it might take a judge to rule on that. This is one of those archaic laws with very little precedent or case law around it, and it's likely even a skeptical judge might need to take some time to wrap their head around it.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Minneapolis. Thank you so much.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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