Reading Room Document

Authority of President to Keep Troops in Little Rock

This memo concluded that the President had authority to maintain the presence of federal troops in Little Rock following the Little Rock Nine crisis absent any specific court order if he concluded there were a “high probability of serious disorder if the troops were removed.” If, however, a court ruled that troops were not needed, the opinion advised that the President’s maintenance of troops would present “grave constitutional questions . . . which should, if at all possible, be avoided.”

May 8, 1958