Thursday Eve Constitution Blogging

Well, it's not quite the Constitution, but it invokes the Constitution, so there!

United States Code
Title 18. Part 1. Chapter 67. Article 1385.
§ 1385. Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

--courtesy of Cornell University Law School

The Wikipedia short translation: "The Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement."

Now you can read Glenn Greenwald's article at Salon titled "Why is a U.S. Army brigade being assigned to the 'Homeland'?"

In his second update he notes the following:

There's no need to start manufacturing all sorts of scare scenarios about Bush canceling elections or the imminent declaration of martial law or anything of that sort. None of that is going to happen with a single brigade and it's unlikely in the extreme that they'd be announcing these deployments if they had activated any such plans. The point is that the deployment is a very dangerous precedent, quite possibly illegal, and a radical abandonment of an important democratic safeguard. As always with first steps of this sort, the danger lies in how the power can be abused in the future.

Just keeping an eye on what the gummint is up to. Oh look, a shiny object! A McCain stunt! The economy is falling! Drill, baby, drill! Terr'ists!
--the BB