Hmmm…. Just in time to be enacted after Democrats take over the House and Senate? Naw, that’s crazy talk. A President would never do anything to abridge his people’s hard won freedoms.
In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President’s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.
Public Law 109-364, or the “John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007″ (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a “public emergency” and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to “suppress public disorder.”
President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is “martial law.”
In a telling bit of understatement, the Senator from Vermont noted that “the implications of changing the (Posse Comitatus) Act are enormous”. “There is good reason,” he said, “for the constructive friction in existing law when it comes to martial law declarations. Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy. We fail our Constitution, neglecting the rights of the States, when we make it easier for the President to declare martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty.
How did this get through Congress, you ask?
BECAUSE NONE OF THEM READ IT!
Just as the Patriot act was passed without even a reading, this bill went right through without even a mention of what it contained. If a defense appropriations bill went through congress with this line on page 1452:
“All members of the House of Representatives and the Senate will hereby be summarily executed by firing squad in front of the Lincoln Memorial within three days of this bill’s passage. Thence, the capital building will be razed by thermite explosives.”
. . . we would have one less branch of government within a week. If I were President my first act would be to write an executive order requiring members of Congress to read every word of every bill they intend to vote for, with non-complience being taken as a violation of their oath of office. At the least, we would have less law passed, and certainly less bad law like this.
Give me liberty or give me death.