Trump claims that the historical meaning of “insurrection” was limited to “taking up of arms and waging war upon the United States,” but he cites not one source to support this claim. Pet. 27. As this Court has held, “[i]nsurrection against a government may or may not culminate in an organized rebellion, but a civil war always begins by insurrection against the lawful authority of the Government.” The Prize Cases, 67 U.S. (2 Black) 635, 666 (1862). “Insurrection” is thus necessarily less than “civil war” or full-scale “rebellion.” Instead, an “insurrection” refers to a “rising of any body of people within the United States, to attain or effect by force or violence any object of a great public nature” or “to resist, or to prevent by force or violence, the execution of any statute of the United States.”

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Trump claims that the historical meaning of “insurrection” was limited to “taking up of arms and waging war upon the United States,” but he cites not one source to support this claim. Pet. 27. As this Court has held, “[i]nsurrection against a government may or may not culminate in an organized rebellion, but a civil war always begins by insurrection against the lawful authority of the Government.” The Prize Cases, 67 U.S. (2 Black) 635, 666 (1862). “Insurrection” is thus necessarily less than “civil war” or full-scale “rebellion.” Instead, an “insurrection” refers to a “rising of any body of people within the United States, to attain or effect by force or violence any object of a great public nature” or “to resist, or to prevent by force or violence, the execution of any statute of the United States.”

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