For convenience:
There are (and have been) plenty of exceptions to Posse Comitatus. To allow the feds to currently assert otherwise as justification for their failure
to act in this instance is simply unacceptable. This is the height of “double speak”!
First, the Posse Comitatus act does not apply to the Coast Guard or the National Guard. Moreover, its prohibitions, relative to the rest of the armed
services, are in instances of “civil law enforcement”.
Secondly, the Stafford Act , explicitly governs as one of several statutory exceptions to Posse Comitatus.
While the act bureaucratically requires in several sections the consent of a state’s governor to trigger the exceptions, Section 5192 specifically
states:
§ 5192. Federal emergency assistance {Sec. 502}
a. Specified
In any emergency, the President may--
1. direct any Federal agency, with or without reimbursement, to utilize its authorities and the resources granted to it under Federal law (including
personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, and managerial, technical and advisory services) in support of State and local emergency assistance
efforts to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, and lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe;
2. coordinate all disaster relief assistance (including voluntary assistance) provided by Federal agencies, private organizations, and State and local
governments;
3. provide technical and advisory assistance to affected State and local governments for--
A. the performance of essential community services;
B. issuance of warnings of risks or hazards;
C. public health and safety information, including dissemination of such information;
D. provision of health and safety measures; and
E. management, control, and reduction of immediate threats to public health and safety;
4. provide emergency assistance through Federal agencies;
5. remove debris in accordance with the terms and conditions of section 407 [42 U.S.C. § 5173];
6. provide assistance in accordance with section 408 [42 U.S.C. § 5174]; and [(Pub.L. 106-390, § 206(b), October 30, 2000)]
7. assist State and local governments in the distribution of medicine, food, and other consumable supplies, and emergency assistance.
b. General
Whenever the Federal assistance provided under subsection (a) with respect to an emergency is inadequate, the President may also provide assistance
with respect to efforts to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, and lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe.
Additionally, the President of the United States has the constitutional power and inherent right and duty to use military forces in the context of
homeland defense and in the preservation of federal functions (transportation, commerce, education, civil rights).
Federal troops were used in the South during the 1960s to preserve access to educational institutions for blacks under this constitutional
presidential authority. As another example, over ten thousand U.S. troops were deployed during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta under this “inherent
presidential authority rationale” because of the potential for terrorist activity.
To see the federal government use Posse Comitatus as cover for their inexcusable inaction, and incompetence, is an affront to the most basic standards
of common sense and human decency.
How many of you will let the Feds & President pass on this one???? Absurd!
