-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 20, 2007 10:47:51 AM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Making Martial Law Easier
February 19, 2007
Editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/opinion/19mon3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Making Martial Law Easier
A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that
strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the
dead of night.
So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense
budget bill at the Bush administration’s behest that makes it
easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement
and declare martial law.
The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but
important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars
military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from
engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was
enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between
civil government and the military.
The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major
exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president’s
use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness,
insurrection and rebellion, where a state is violating federal law
or depriving people of constitutional rights.
The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift
the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to
restoring public order.
Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use
military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural
disaster, disease outbreak, terrorist attack, or "ANY OTHER
condition.”
Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough
public airing. But these new presidential powers were slipped into
the law without hearings or public debate.
The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the
measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in
advance with the nation’s governors.
There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy,
(D) Vermont, and Christopher Bond, (R) Missouri, and backed
unanimously by the nation’s governors, that would repeal the
stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this
kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate.
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