Under this law, in response to a state government’s request, the president may deploy the military to suppress an insurrection in that state. There are many statutory exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act, but the most important one is the Insurrection Act. What are the main statutory exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act? However, when Guard personnel are called into federal service, or “federalized,” they become part of the federal armed forces, which means they are bound by the Posse Comitatus Act until they are returned to state control.
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That means they are free to participate in law enforcement if doing so is consistent with state law. Members of the National Guard are rarely covered by the Posse Comitatus Act because they usually report to their state or territory’s governor. The Coast Guard, though part of the federal armed forces, has express statutory authority to perform law enforcement and is not bound by the Posse Comitatus Act. While the Posse Comitatus Act refers only to the Army and Air Force, a different statute extends the same rule to the Navy and Marine Corps. No, only federal military personnel are covered. Are all members of the military covered by the Posse Comitatus Act? In practice, this means that members of the military who are subject to the law may not participate in civilian law enforcement unless doing so is expressly authorized by a statute or the Constitution. The Posse Comitatus Act consists of just one sentence: “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” Moreover, there are statutory exceptions to the law that allow the president to use the military to suppress genuine rebellions and to enforce federal civil rights laws. Today, the Posse Comitatus Act operates as an extension of these constitutional safeguards. It finds expression in the Constitution’s division of power over the military between Congress and the president, and in the guarantees of the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, which were in part reactions to abuses committed by the British army against American colonists. Through the law, Congress sought to ensure that the federal military would not be used to intervene in the establishment of Jim Crow in the former Confederacy.ĭespite the ignominious origins of the law itself, the broader principle that the military should not be allowed to interfere in the affairs of civilian government is a core American value. The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878, after the end of Reconstruction and the return of white supremacists to political power in both southern states and Congress. What are the origins of the Posse Comitatus Act? The Posse Comitatus Act is so named because one of the things it prohibits is using soldiers rather than civilians as a posse comitatus. In any classic Western film, when a lawman gathers a “posse” to pursue the outlaws, they are forming a posse comitatus. In British and American law, a posse comitatus is a group of people who are mobilized by the sheriff to suppress lawlessness in the county. What does the term “posse comitatus” mean? However, recent events have revealed dangerous gaps in the law’s coverage that Congress must address. This 143-year-old law embodies an American tradition that sees military interference in civilian affairs as a threat to both democracy and personal liberty. The Posse Comitatus Act bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement except when expressly authorized by law.
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