US Military Detains American for First Time Ever Without Insurrection Act in Los Angeles

What just happened?

• About 200 Marines rolled into Los Angeles early Friday, assigned to “protect federal property.”

• Less than 12 hours later, one squad executed the first known Marine detention of a U.S. civilian on domestic soil without the Insurrection Act in force.

• Northern Command insists troops may “briefly restrain” citizens to neutralize threats. Civil-liberties lawyers call that a bright-red Posse Comitatus violation.

@krassenstein6/13 Trump’s Military detains an American in Los Angeles. #losangeles #la #breakingnews

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Posse Comitatus: the guard-rail Trump just barreled through

The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act bars the Army and Air Force, and, by 2021 NDAA update, the Navy and Marine Corps, from domestic law-enforcement duties unless Congress or the Constitution explicitly says otherwise.

For nearly 150 years, that firewall shielded Americans from seeing battle-dress troops slap cuffs on protesters. Trump just kicked in the door.

“But the Insurrection Act isn’t in play”

Exactly. Presidents can lawfully deploy active-duty troops on U.S. streets only if they invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, as George H.W. Bush did during the 1992 L.A. riots. Trump has not issued that proclamation.

Instead, the White House points to Title 10 § 12406, an obscure clause letting a president “federalize” state Guard forces to enforce federal law when a rebellion obstructs it. Even some Pentagon lawyers say that clause was never meant to give Marines arrest power over private citizens.

Why experts call the detention unprecedented

• 1992 L.A. riots: Marines and soldiers patrolled the city after Bush signed an Insurrection Act order—every arrest flowed from that declaration.

• Today: No Insurrection Act, no governor’s request, no congressional authorization, yet active-duty Marines just zipped up a protester.

Legal scholar Hina Shamsi of the ACLU calls it “military law enforcement by press release” and warns it hands presidents “a blank check to police political dissent.”

The showdown ahead

• Newsom v. Trump: California’s lawsuit argues the deployment “usurps state control” and violates Posse Comitatus.

• Courts in flux: A district judge ordered Guard troops returned to state command; the Ninth Circuit hit pause, scheduling an emergency hearing next week.

• Capitol reaction: House Democrats vow an oversight probe; even some Senate Republicans privately admit the precedent “makes them queasy.”

Why it matters—at a glance

• Rule of law: Military detentions inside U.S. borders without Insurrection Act authority shred a century-and-a-half of legal tradition.

• Civil liberties: Protesters now face not just DHS agents but war-fighting Marines.

• Political weaponization: A sitting president can brand demonstrators “violent” and unleash combat troops,no governor, no Congress, no court order.

Where this could go

If the courts side with California, Trump will face an immediate injunction, a clash that could vault straight to the Supreme Court. If the White House wins, the floodgates open for future presidents to deploy troops anywhere dissent erupts. Either way, Congress will be under pressure to tighten Posse Comitatus once and for all.

For now, one thing is clear: a single pair of plastic cuffs outside a federal building just rewrote the playbook for presidential power—and every American’s right to protest hangs in the balance.