The answer is pretty straightforward and ignored by Kurt, who should know better. Both the Constitution, Art. IV, s. 4, and the first section of the Insurrection Act, 10 USC 251, only allow for the use of federal forces to suppress a domestic insurrection on application of the state legislature or, if the legislature cannot be convened, the governor. The state legislatures and governors are pointedly withholding their consent.
The Insurrection Act contains two exceptions where federal forces can be used, or state militia can be called into federal service, without the state’s consent. But these exceptions are constitutionally questionable and neither of them apply:
Section 252 allows the use of federal troops or federalized militia when “the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.” Even in the extreme case of Portland, the federal courts are still functioning, so this section doesn’t apply.
Section 253 allows it if the state itself “(1)so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or (2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.” No states are doing this.
So the answer is not practical, it is legal. The President is not “sending in the troops” because it would violate the constitution and federal law for him to do so. Unlike our prior President, unlike the caricature of this President presented by Democrat propagandists, and contrary to some of his occasional, unfortunate rhetoric, President Trump actually obeys the law and the Constitution.
That seems to concur with Andrew Napolitano, who insists that Trump can only send in the troops if asked. That’s fine with me. Let the red-pilling continue.
BUT, wouldn’t it be OK to use troops to stop the riots in DC, which is a federal city? Is there some way in which he could suspend or mitigate home rule by EO?