Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Confronting rebellion

Confronting rebellion
Getty Images

Daniel O. Jamison is a retired attorney.

A Rebellion looms. Too many Americans have the attitude that if they cannot accomplish their aims lawfully and peaceably, they will resort to violence. This attitude apparently traces to Reconstruction when the organizers of the defunct Confederacy determined to regain the political power of their states, using lawful and peaceful means if they worked, but unlawful and violent means if necessary. With savage violence, they “redeemed” the South, ousting integrated state governments and denying equal rights to Blacks.


How can rebellion in the future be stopped?

A remedy for a lawfully elected rogue president who disregards the Constitution is impeachment and conviction in Congress, but only if enough responsible legislators are elected who would vote for both. If convicted, this president could refuse to step down. If supporters block civil authorities from removing this president, the military, under its oath to the Constitution, would presumably seek the removal. Given its long history as the ultimate protector of that Constitution, the military would likely overcome any dissent in its ranks.

The ousted president’s chosen vice-president might also “suspend” the Constitution, necessitating another impeachment and potentially the elevation of the Speaker of the House to the presidency.

Another remedy is the 25th Amendment but this is seemingly impractical. The president can deny a disability and start a process that would require two thirds of each house of Congress promptly to find against the president. If impeachment fails for lack of votes to convict, this will too.

If the rebellious president defeats impeachment and the 25th Amendment, military leaders may nevertheless feel bound to protect the Constitution.

What happens if the rebellious presidential candidate loses? Certain state legislatures could reject their citizens’ votes for the other candidate and throw their state’s electors to their candidate. They and their governors could defy state and federal court orders to reinstate the popular vote, calling out their national guards to prevent interference with what they have done. Their supporters in Congress would insist on counting these votes to deny the election to the other candidate.

Alternatively, or simultaneously, armed groups around the nation, reminiscent of the 1868 Ku Klux Klan’s reported 550,000 members spread across the South, could mobilize to prevent civil authorities from enforcing the law. A 1957 precedent shows how to subdue a rebellious state. At that time the governor of Arkansas defied a court order to integrate Little Rock High School and ordered Arkansas’s national guard to prevent it. President Eisenhower federalized Arkansas’ guard and sent in 1,000 troops from the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the court’s order. Eisenhower’s remarkable order stated: “the Secretary of Defense is authorized to use such of the armed forces of the United States as he may deem necessary.”

Historical precedent also suggests how to subdue rebellious armed groups. The Constitution gives Congress power to call forth the “Militia” to enforce the law, suppress insurrection, and suspend habeas corpus when rebellion and the public safety may require it. Habeas corpus requires an arrested person to be brought before a civilian court for release or a statement of charges.

In 1871, Congress temporarily suspended habeas corpus and authorized use of military force to put down rampant Klan violence. President Ulysses Grant promptly used the military to suppress the Klan. For about three years, the Attorney General brought thousands of criminal prosecutions for violations of civil rights. To obtain witness testimony, the suspension of habeas corpus allowed indefinite detention of persons threatening witnesses. Despite the difficulty of securing convictions in the South, a sufficient number of convictions and use of the military quelled Klan violence.

But once this pressure was removed, the evil resurfaced. Ron Chernow, author of Grant, notes a rueful Grant wrote in 1876 that violence in South Carolina, “is only a repetition of the course that has been pursued in other Southern states…Mississippi is governed today by officials chosen through fraud and violence, such as would scarcely be accredited to savages…How long these things are to continue, or what is to be the final remedy, the Great Ruler of the Universe only knows….”

America is similarly threatened today. While the 1871 precedents were a temporary solution, they may be instructive today.

We the people can avert the potential scenarios cited above if we overwhelmingly vote for responsible candidates willing to confront rebellion.

The Constitution is in our hands.

Read More

Anti-gerrymandering protest
Anti-gerrymandering protest
Sarah L. Voisin/Getty Images

The Gerrymandering Crisis Escalates: Can Reform Stop the 2026 Power Grab?

The battle over redistricting is intensifying across the country, with bipartisan concern mounting over democratic legitimacy, racial equity, and the urgent need for structural reform. Yet despite years of advocacy from cross-partisan organizations and scholars, the partisan battle over gerrymandering is accelerating, threatening to fracture the very foundation of representative democracy.

The Fulcrum has been watching closely. In our August 8th editorial, we warned of the dilemma now facing the reform movement:

Keep ReadingShow less
A close-up of a microphone during a session of government.
Rev. Laurie Manning shares her insights on speaking with political leaders about specific advocacy efforts. "Your senators' offices are waiting to hear from you," writes Manning.
Getty Images, Semen Salivanchuk

How To Rewire a Nation From a Single Seat

In politics, attention is drawn to spectacle. Cable news runs endless loops of red-faced lawmakers clashing in hearings, while pundits dissect every gaffe and polling shift. Every election season becomes a staged drama, parties locked in opposition, candidates maneuvering for advantage. The players may change, but the script stays the same. Those in power know that as long as the public watches the visible fracas, the hidden machinery of control runs quietly, unexamined and untouched.

We are told the drama hinges on which party controls which chamber, which map shapes the advantage, and which scandal sidelines a rising star. These are presented as the key moves in the political game, shifting the balance of power. Every election is declared the most consequential of our time. But these claims are, in reality, crude distractions—very much part of the performance—while the real levers of power turn behind the scenes, where laws and policies shift with the choices of a few hundred individuals, each capable of tipping the balance with a single vote.

Keep ReadingShow less
Veterans’ Care at Risk Under Trump As Hundreds of Doctors and Nurses Reject Working at VA Hospitals
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica

Veterans’ Care at Risk Under Trump As Hundreds of Doctors and Nurses Reject Working at VA Hospitals

Veterans hospitals are struggling to replace hundreds of doctors and nurses who have left the health care system this year as the Trump administration pursues its pledge to simultaneously slash Department of Veterans Affairs staff and improve care.

Many job applicants are turning down offers, worried that the positions are not stable and uneasy with the overall direction of the agency, according to internal documents examined by ProPublica. The records show nearly 4 in 10 of the roughly 2,000 doctors offered jobs from January through March of this year turned them down. That is quadruple the rate of doctors rejecting offers during the same time period last year.

Keep ReadingShow less