# Insurrection Act

The insurrection act of 1807, or just the insurrection act, is the U.S. federal law that empowers the president of the United States to nationally deploy the Armed Forces and to federalize the National Guard units of the individual states in specific circumstances, such as the suppression of civil disorder, of insurrection, and of armed rebellion against the federal government. The insurrection act provides a statutory exception to the Posse Comitatus Act (1878) that limits the president's deploying the U.S. military to enforce either civil law or criminal law within the United States. After invoking and before exercising the powers authorized under the insurrection act, Title 10 U.S.C. § 254 requires the publication of a presidential proclamation whereby the U.S. President formally orders the dispersion of the peoples committing civil unrest or armed rebellion.