George Stephanoploulos jumped in to put his ignorance on display in this past weekend’s edition of his Sunday gabfest on ABC. Sarah Isgur delivered a brief refresher.
Sarah Isgur makes a total fool out of George Stephanopoulos after he claimed that the Insurrection Act has never been invoked “over the objections of governors.”
First JD and now Sarah, George is not having a good week. 😂pic.twitter.com/0fc0AtpuFe
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) October 14, 2025
When I went to work as a law clerk for Eighth Circuit Judge Myron Bright in 1979, he took me for lunch to the VFW in Fargo. Retired North Dakota Federal District Judge Ronald Davies was sitting at a nearby table. Judge Bright made a point of taking me over and introducing me to him.
Judge Davies was a heroic and historic figure. Due to a vacancy on the federal bench, Judge Davies had been dispatched to Little Rock to resolve the backlog of cases that had accumulated in Little Rock. Students of ancient history may recall that the Supreme Court had ruled in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional. In September 1957, as a result of that ruling, nine black students enrolled at Little Rock’s Central High. Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to the school to resist integration of the school under the pretense of maintaining civil order.
President Eisenhower’s Department of Justice requested an injunction against the governor’s deployment of the National Guard to prevent integration. Judge Davies granted the injunction on September 20, 1957. Judge Davies ruled that Faubus had used the troops to prevent integration, not to preserve order. Judge Davies ordered Faubus to remove the guardsmen.
President Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy the 101st Airborne Division to the school to escort the nine students to school. The division remained there for the remainder of the school year. That is the background to the point that Sarah Isgur makes in the space of a second or two in the clip above. Only last year ABC News reported the honor paid in Little Rock to Judge Davies. See the story “Judge who defied segregationists is honored in Little Rock as a hero” (video clip included).
Judge Davies was a member of the greatest generation. He served in the Army during World War II, rising from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel before his discharge in 1946. He died in 1996 at the age of 91. The Ronald N. Davies Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Grand Forks is named in his memory, as is Fargo’s Judge Ronald N. Davies High School. The portrait below is taken from the Office of the North Dakota Governor in connection with the recognition of Judge Davies with the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award.
I should add that President Kennedy also invoked the Insurrection Act under similar circumstances, not once but three times — once in 1962 and twice in 1963 — in connection with the integration of the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama, respectively.
