Anonymous ID: 2dec49 Oct. 29, 2018, 2:15 p.m. No.3654942   🗄️.is 🔗kun

https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/14813/can-the-usa-military-be-used-as-a-police-force-domestically

 

And of course, you have the general law, predating the Posse Comitatus Act, which the Act was in no way meant to modify: the Insurrection Act. Remember how I said the Posse Comitatus Act was meant to deal with informal use of soldiers as a posse? The Insurrection Act represents what was considered an acceptable use of soldiers: authorized by the President himself, as the ultimate tool through which the United States exercises its sovereign authority within its borders. Source (CRS). Use of soldiers is a last resort; the President may only approve it under the Insurrection Act when he determines that the civil authorities are unwilling or unable to enforce the laws. The President must make a proclamation ordering those involved to disperse. But once the President has invoked the Insurrection Act, the Posse Comitatus Act does not apply. Under applicable DoD policy, enclosure 3, section 1.b, action under the Insurrection Act is a category of permissible direct assistance that is not restricted by law or DoD policy. A commander may choose not to deploy soldiers for law enforcement tasks (as happened in the LA riots), but the Insurrection Act perfectly falls under the exception in the Posse Comitatus Act (which is not surprising, seeing as it was written after the Insurrection Act with no intention of changing that law).

 

Interestingly enough, despite the Posse Comitatus Act apparently forbidding this, DoD policy recognizes two situations where the military may directly assist civil law enforcement in an emergency without any statutory authority. DoD bases this on implicit constitutional authority, specifically:

 

the inherent legal right of the U.S. Government - a sovereign national entity under the Federal Constitution - to insure the preservation of public order and the carrying out of governmental operations within its territorial limits, by force if necessary.

 

When there is an unexpected large-scale civil disturbance that local authorities are powerless to stop, local military commanders may intervene to stop widespread loss of life or wanton destruction and restore order to the point that civil authorities can take over, as well to protect federal property and functions if civil authorities cannot.