Editing Riot Act (section)

===United States===
A riot act was passed by the [[Massachusetts]] state legislature in 1786 during [[Shays' Rebellion]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Zinn |first=Howard |title=A People's History of the United States |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-06-083865-2 |oclc=61265580 |page=[https://archive.org/details/peopleshistoryof00zinn_0/page/93 93] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/peopleshistoryof00zinn_0/page/93 }}</ref>

At the federal level, the principle of the Riot Act was incorporated into the first [[Militia Acts of 1792|Militia Act]] (1 Stat. 264) of 2 May 1792. The act's long title was "An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions". Section 3 of the Militia Act gave power to the [[President of the United States|president]] to issue a proclamation to "command the insurgents to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes, within a limited time", and authorized him to use the militia if they failed to do so. Substantively identical language is currently codified in [[title 10 of the United States Code]], Chapter 13, Section 254.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2017-title10/pdf/USCODE-2017-title10-subtitleA-partI-chap13-sec254.pdf|title=10 USC Chapter 13 – Insurrection, Section 254 – Proclamation to Disperse.|publisher=Government Publishing Office|access-date=6 March 2019}}</ref>

Prohibitions against inciting riots were further codified in United States federal law under ''[[Title 18 of the United States Code|18 U.S. Code]] § 2101 – Riots'', as part of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1968]], passed by the United States Congress.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2101|title=18 U.S. Code § 2101 – Riots|website=LII / Legal Information Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_chicago7_doc_11.html|title=History of the Federal Judiciary &#124; Federal Judicial Center|website=www.fjc.gov}}</ref>