- President Bush informed the nation, during a press conference,
he might seek to use the U.S. military to quarantine parts of the nation
if there is a serious outbreak of the deadly avian flu that has killed
millions of chickens and 60-some people in Southeast Asia.
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- That's the second time Mr. Bush has expressed a desire
to use the military for local policing. The first was in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina. The Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. 1385) generally prohibits federal
military personnel and National Guard units under federal authority from
law enforcement within the United States, except where expressly authorized
by the U.S. Constitution or Congress.
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- Enacted during Reconstruction, the purpose of the
Posse Comitatus Act was to severely limit federal use of the military for
local law enforcement. Would Americans tolerate such a gigantic leap in
the federalizing law enforcement?
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- I'm guessing the answer is yes. In the name of safety,
we've undergone decades of softening up to accept just about any government
edict that our predecessors would have found offensive. Let's look at some
of it.
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- The anti-smoking movement might be the beginning
of the softening-up. They started calling for reasonable actions like no-smoking
sections on airplanes. Then it progressed to no smoking on airplanes at
all, then private establishments such as restaurants and businesses. Emboldened
by smokers' timidity, some jurisdictions have ordinances banning smoking
outdoors, such as at beachesand parks.
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- Then there are seatbelt and helmet laws, sometimes
zealously enforced by using night-vision goggles. And Americans accept
government edicts on where their children may ride in their cars. Americans
sheepishly accepted all sorts of Transportation Security Administration
nonsense. In the name of security, we've allowed fingernail clippers, eyeglass
screwdrivers and toy soldiers to be taken from us prior to boarding a plane.
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- We've accepted federal intrusion in our financial
privacy through the Bank Secrecy Act. Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican,
says, "More than 99.999 percent of those [who] had their privacy invaded
were law-abiding citizens going about their own personal financial business."
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- Most recently there's the U.S. Supreme Court Kelo
decision, in which the court held local governments can take a private
home and turn it over to another private party. Politicians have learned
and become comfortable that Americans now will docilely accept about any
legalized restraint on their behavior.
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- You say, "Hey, Williams, but it's the law."
In the late-1700s, the British Parliament enacted the Sugar Act, the Stamp
Act and the Townshend Acts and imposed other grievances enumerated in our
Declaration of Independence. I'm happy we didn't have today's Americans
around at the time to bow before King George III and say, "It's the
law."
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- Respectful of the Posse Comitatus Act, Mr. Bush has
suggested he'll ask Congress to amend the law to allow for using the U.S.
military to enforce regional quarantines. Whether Congress amends the law
or not, Mr. Bush has no constitutional authority to deploy military troops
across the land. Why?
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- The U.S. Constitution's Article IV, Section 4 reads,
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;
and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature
cannot be convened), against domestic Violence." Coupled with the
Tenth Amendment, "The powers not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people," this means short of an insurrection,
the U.S. military must be invited by a state legislature or executive.
Any federal law that violates these constitutional provisions is null and
void and can only be enforced through fear, intimidation and brute military
force.
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- Walter E. Williams is a nationally syndicated columnist.
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