When local law enforcement can't restore law and order, the US military gets the call.
How federal troops are used in domestic law enforcement is governed by a pair of laws -- the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and the Insurrection Act of 1807. Those dictate circumstances in which federal troops can be deployed on American soil, including natural disaster, terrorist attack, epidemic or domestic violence. When it comes to curbing civil unrest, the military has been called out on multiple occasions -- and it wasn’t just the National Guard, either. Here are a few examples.















