Yesterday, a federal judge barred President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard troops in California for law-enforcement actions, including arrests and crowd control. (See Quelling the Rebellion.)
The ruling was issued by Clinton appointee Charles Breyer, a senior US district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. (Charles is the younger brother of Stephen Breyer, who served as a justice of the US Supreme Court from 1994 to 2022.)
Judge Breyer cited the Posse Comitatus Act as justification for his ruling. Let’s talk about that law.
The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878 by a Democrat-controlled Congress after the end of Reconstruction. It was designed to sharply limit the federal government’s ability to use the Army for domestic law enforcement. But why would Democrats at the time want to do that?
This came in the wake of the Compromise of 1877, when federal troops were withdrawn from the South. The law reflected the desire of Southern Democrats to prevent the federal government from deploying soldiers to enforce federal law within the states.
During Reconstruction, federal troops had been deployed to protect freedmen, uphold voting rights, and defend Republican-led governments from violent “Redeemer” resistance. By restricting the use of federal troops, the Posse Comitatus Act effectively made it much harder for Washington to protect black citizens from violence, intimidation, and disenfranchisement during Redemption.
The results were devastating. Lynchings and other forms of racial violence soared (see Agency and Motive in Lynching and Genocide). Black families were driven from their homes, their property seized by white mobs (see my review of Marcos Williams’ documentary Banished). At the polls, Black men were met with terror and intimidation that destroyed their right to vote for generations.
This law is a relic—and it’s time for it to be struck down. Take this ruling to the Supreme Court and have the Posse Comitatus Act finally ruled unconstitutional. Let’s return to the original intent of Article I, Section 8, and fully restore the powers granted under Article II of the Constitution. (See Concerning the Powers of The US Constitution—And Those Defying Them.)
We need to stop the rise of neoconfederate resistance in these blue states. If left unchecked, this escalating defiance will drive the nation closer to conflict. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past. We settled the question of “states’ rights” once by war. Let’s settle the question this time in peace. (See On the Road to Civil War: The Democratic Party’s Regression into Neoconfederacy.)
freedom and reason 