Illinois’ Sen. Dick Durbin seeks to reform Insurrection Act to stop Trump’s ‘dangerous overreach’
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin joined other Democrats in calling for reforms to a more than 200-year-old law that he says President Donald Trump can use to justify "dangerous executive overreach."
Durbin voiced support for overhauling the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to dispatch active duty military in the country when a state is unable to put down an insurrection or is defying federal law.
Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. Kash Patel pushed back against criticism from Democratic lawmakers over his
What we know:
President Trump has floated invoking the Insurrection Act throughout his first year back in office as a means for sending troops to mostly Democratic-controlled cities and states to combat crime.
Durbin argued on the Senate floor that the law in its current form might be used by Trump to sow further chaos in states like Illinois, where his administration and local and state officials are facing off in court over the deployment of National Guard troops.
"In the hands of a man who wants to be a king, who nearly every day undermines the checks and balances of the Constitution—the Insurrection Act as it stands today would serve as yet another tool for dangerous executive overreach," Durbin said.
He called the current language in the law "dangerously outdated, vague, and vulnerable to abuse if wielded by a President that refuses to act in good faith."
The backstory:
The push for reform comes as Trump administration officials and lawyers have argued that at-times violent clashes between protesters and federal immigration enforcement officers require the National Guard to protect federal personnel and property.
But state officials have rejected the claim, arguing that it’s the increased presence of immigration agents and their questionable tactics that have sown chaos in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois, and the Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow for the deployment.