# Executive Order 12804 **Signed May 1, 1992 (57 FR 19361, published May 5, 1992).** George H.W. Bush's order federalizing the California National Guard and authorizing the armed forces and federal law enforcement to restore order during the [[1992 Los Angeles Riots]]. It is **the most recent invocation of the [[Insurrection Act]]** — the statute has not been used since. ## What it does **The recitals** note that Proclamation No. 6427 was issued the same day, that the conditions of domestic violence described in it continue, and that "the persons engaging in such acts of violence have not dispersed." Same two-step as 1957. **Section 1** provides that units and members of the armed forces **and federal law enforcement officers** will be used to suppress the violence and restore order in and about the City and County of Los Angeles "and other districts of California." **Section 2** authorizes the Secretary of Defense to use such of the armed forces as necessary, and to call National Guard units and members into active federal service "for an indefinite period and until relieved," subject to recall. It closes with a sentence that has no analogue in 1957: *"In carrying out the provisions of this order, the Secretary of Defense shall observe such law enforcement policies as the Attorney General may determine."* **Section 3** makes the Attorney General the coordinator of all federal agencies assisting, and of those agencies' activities with state and local ones. **Section 4** gives the Secretary of Defense the withdrawal decision, to be made in light of the Attorney General's assessment of whether state and local authorities can resume responsibility. **Section 5** permits delegation. **Section 6** provides that nothing in the order confers "any substantive or procedural right or privilege on any person or organization, enforceable against the United States." ## What changed in thirty-five years Read against [[Executive Order 10730]], three differences stand out, and none of them is cosmetic. | | 1957 (EO 10730) | 1992 (EO 12804) | |---|---|---| | Authority cited | Chapter 15 of Title 10, **"particularly sections 332, 333 and 334"** | Chapter 15 of Title 10 — **no sections named** | | Attorney General | no role | sets law-enforcement policy for the military, coordinates all federal agencies, drives the withdrawal timing | | Private rights | silent | **expressly disclaimed** (§ 6) | The first is the substantive one. Naming §§ 332–334 tied the order to specific statutory predicates with specific factual requirements. Citing the chapter generally does not. The second reflects a genuine institutional change — by 1992 domestic deployment ran through the Justice Department's civil-disturbance apparatus, and the military operated under law-enforcement policies it did not write. The third is boilerplate that had become standard by the 1990s, but it is boilerplate with an effect: it forecloses the order itself as a source of any claim. ## In operation The order federalized the California Guard already deployed by Governor Pete Wilson at Mayor Tom Bradley's request. Wilson and Bradley had **explicitly asked** the President to invoke the Insurrection Act — this is the consented case, not an imposed one. The Pentagon activated **Operation Garden Plot**, its standing civil-disturbance plan, forming **Joint Task Force-Los Angeles**; roughly 4,000 Army and Marine troops and 1,000 federal law enforcement officers deployed. Section 1's inclusion of "Federal law enforcement officers" is where the operation's worst failure originated. Customs and Border Patrol agents sent for civil-disturbance duty conducted **immigration sweeps** while deployed — outside the mission, inside the authority. An order that assembles a multi-agency force does not thereby confine the agencies in it. ## KB significance **The silence since 1992 is the fact.** Thirty-four years without an invocation left the Insurrection Act's contested edges wholly untested when they came under pressure in 2025–26 — and an administration that repeatedly threatened the Act reached instead for 10 U.S.C. § 12406, losing in [[Trump v. Illinois]] on the ground that § 12406 federalizes but does not authorize the military to execute the laws. The statute that plainly authorizes what was wanted remains unused. **Consent is why it produced no law.** No litigation followed, because the governor had asked. Compare [[Executive Order 10730]], issued against a governor, which also produced no litigation — because the predicate was undeniable. The Insurrection Act's judicial record is thin in both directions. ## See also - [[1992 Los Angeles Riots]] — the events this order responded to - [[Executive Order 10730]] — the 1957 counterpart - [[Insurrection Act]] — the authority and its invocation history - [[National Guard Federalization Flow]] — what federalization changes - [[Trump v. Illinois]] — the modern route taken instead, and its limit - [[Posse Comitatus Act]] — the prohibition an Insurrection Act invocation lifts