How many presidents invoked the insurrection act
Executive summary
The Insurrection Act has been used intermittently across U.S. history: sources tally roughly 30 invocations over time and attribute those invocations to between 15 and 17 different presidents, depending on how one counts disputed or extra-legal episodes [1] [2] [3]. The practical bottom line: about three dozen crisis deployments occurred, and roughly mid‑teens presidents — commonly reported as 15 (Wikipedia list) or 17 (some legal scholars) — have invoked the statute [2] [3].
1. What the question really asks: presidents versus occasions
Answering “How many presidents invoked the Insurrection Act?” requires separating two related measures: the number of distinct presidents who have used the statute, and the total number of invocations (distinct incidents) across history — the latter is usually larger because some presidents invoked the Act multiple times [1] [4].
2. The conventional counts: 30 invocations, mid‑teens presidents
The Brennan Center and multiple reporters compile the Act’s use as “about 30” crises in U.S. history, a figure that tracks proclamations and deployments from the early Republic through the Los Angeles riots in 1992 [1] [4] [5]. A Wikipedia list summarizes that tally as 30 incidents and states that 15 presidents invoked the Act [2]. Those two figures — ~30 invocations and 15 presidents — are widely cited in contemporary reporting [5] [6].
3. Why some sources give 17 presidents instead of 15
Other analyses put the total number of presidents who invoked the statute higher — for example, one legal commentary notes “Only 17 of our 45 presidents have invoked the law” — reflecting different interpretive choices: whether to count disputed or arguably illegal uses, whether to include early‑era militia authorizations under predecessor statutes, and whether to credit state‑level federalizations that blurred statutory lines [3]. That two‑point spread (15 vs. 17) is an explicit product of methodological variation in the sources [2] [3].
4. Historical patterns: who used it and why
Early presidents such as George Washington and John Adams deployed federal force under the Act’s predecessors during early rebellions, and Abraham Lincoln invoked such powers at the Civil War’s outset; Ulysses S. Grant used the law repeatedly against the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction [4] [3]. In the 20th century, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson invoked the Act to enforce desegregation orders; the last conventional invocation came in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush federalized forces during the Los Angeles riots [4] [5] [7].
5. Sources, disputes and implicit agendas
Primary compilations come from legal research groups (Brennan Center), encyclopedias (Britannica), and aggregated lists (Wikipedia); each carries implicit agendas and methodological choices that affect counts — advocacy organizations emphasize risks of broad executive power and may include contested episodes, while encyclopedias and lists may adhere to stricter criteria for “invocation” [4] [1] [7]. That variation explains why public figures sometimes cite different numbers when defending or criticizing proposed uses of the Act [3].
6. Current relevance and limits of the record
Contemporary debates — including threats to invoke the Act in 2020 and 2025 — underscore why precision matters, but the existing public sources provided here do not converge on a single universal count; the defensible statement supported by the reporting is that roughly 15–17 presidents have invoked the Act across about 30 distinct incidents, with the last widely recognized invocation in 1992 [2] [1] [5] [7]. The precise tally depends on whether one counts extra‑legal episodes or only formally documented presidential proclamations [1] [3].