If President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act after the election does it mean that "DemSocialist Anarchists" can be "chased down and legally shot" for the Texas Day of Purge"? No, that's not true: Shooting American citizens beause of their political affiliations is illegal in Texas and every American state even if the president invokes the federal Insurrection Act.
The claim originated in a post (archived here) shared in the Tip for Trump Facebook group on November 1, 2020. The text read:
Patriots just remember the Texas Day of Purge begins the morning of the 4th As soon as President Trump enacts the Insurrection Act then DemSocialist Anarchists like those who attacked you can be chased down and legally shot IAW Texas 2nd Amendment 💥🇺🇲💥
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Nov 2 22:08:25 2020 UTC)
This is a screenshot of the post:
The Insurrection Act of 1807 originally read:
An Act authorizing the employment of the land and naval forces of the United States, in cases of insurrections
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws, either of the United States, or of any individual state or territory, where it is lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection, or of causing the laws to be duly executed, it shall be lawful for him to employ, for the same purposes, such part of the land or naval force of the United States, as shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the pre-requisites of the law in that respect.
APPROVED, March 3, 1807.
It has been amended several times. Click here to see the current law.
Nowhere in the law does it allow the chasing down or killing of people.
President Trump suggested on June 1, 2020 -- when protests and violence were occuring in Washington and other cities -- that he might invoke the act to allow federal troops to police cities. He has not indicated that he is considering a November 4, 2020, order to invoke the act.
