{"id":14790,"date":"2020-06-03T07:15:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T11:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=14790"},"modified":"2020-09-17T13:00:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T17:00:04","slug":"will-trump-declare-martial-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/03\/will-trump-declare-martial-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Trump Declare Martial Law?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"c-single-blog__main-content l-main-content\">\n<div class=\"c-breadcrumbs\">\n<h3 class=\"c-breadcrumbs__container\">American Conservative, June 3, 2020<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-single-blog__main-content l-main-content l-main-content--contained\">\n<div class=\"c-single-blog__taxonomy c-taxonomy \"><a class=\"c-taxonomy__category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/web-categories\/civil-liberties\">Civil Liberties<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-14791\" src=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter-800x436.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter-800x436.jpg 800w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter-1024x558.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter-150x82.jpg 150w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter-768x419.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter.jpg 1190w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"c-single-blog__title c-title wow animated\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/articles\/trumps-finger-on-the-martial-law-trigger\/\"><span class=\"c-title-inner\">Trump\u2019s Finger on the Martial Law Trigger<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n<p>by James Bovard<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-single-blog__subtitle c-subtitle \">\n<p class=\"c-subtitle__inner\">Giving the military total power would be a political nuclear bomb, provoking more unrest than we have now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-single-blog__post-meta c-post-meta \">\n<div class=\"c-post-meta__inner\"><span class=\"c-post-meta__seperator\">|<\/span>12:01 am<a class=\"c-post-meta__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/author\/jim-bovard\/\"> Jim Bovard <\/a><\/div>\n<section class=\"c-post-meta__social-share c-social-share c-social-share--default\">\n<div class=\"c-social-share__group\" data-module=\"socialShare\" data-initialized=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-single-blog__content c-content \">\n<p>President Trump may be veering closer to declaring martial law in response to rioting in many cities across the nation. On Saturday, Trump warned \u201cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realdonaldtrump\/status\/1266796670609588225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Federal Government will step in<\/a> and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests.\u201d\u00a0 On Monday,\u00a0 Trump declared that if cities or states refuse sufficiently defend the life and property of their residents, \u201cI will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even the <i>Washington Post<\/i> concedes that Trump \u201chas the legal authority <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/can-trump-use-military-to-stop-protests-insurrection-act\/2020\/06\/01\/c3724380-a46b-11ea-b473-04905b1af82b_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to deploy<\/a> active-duty military personnel to states to help quell violent protests\u201d though experts warn such a move \u201cwould probably generate strong pushback from some state and local officials.\u201d According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PpollingNumbers\/status\/1267852145996505097\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">survey<\/a> released Tuesday by Political Polls, Americans support \u201ccalling in the U.S. military to supplement city police forces\u201d by a 58 percent to 30 percent margin. But any support could quickly vanish if deploying troops resulted in significant casualties of innocent civilians.<\/p>\n<p>Trump could send in U.S. troops under the Insurrection Act if a governor requested aid. Prior to sending in troops, Trump would be required to\u00a0 issue a proclamation to \u201cimmediately order the insurgents to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/white-house\/trump-considering-move-invoke-insurrection-act-n1221326\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">disperse<\/a> and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time,\u201d according to the law.<\/p>\n<p>Many frenzied activists presume that there is no difference between the Insurrection Act and martial law. <a href=\"https:\/\/crsreports.congress.gov\/product\/pdf\/R\/R42659\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Under the Insurrection Act<\/a>, U.S. troops would still be assisting in enforcing laws under state and local authority. A formal declaration of martial law, on the other hand,\u00a0 effectively suspends civil liberties and gives all authority to the military.<\/p>\n<p>The current round of rioting would be much more constitutionally perilous if not for one\u00a0 intransigent U.S. senator during the Bush administration. Amazingly, Congress passed a law 14 years ago that made martial law practically a push-button perk of presidents.<\/p>\n<p>In 2006, Congress <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/articles\/working-for-the-clampdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">voted<\/a> almost unanimously to entitle\u00a0 President George W. Bush and any subsequent president to effectively declare martial law largely as a matter of bureaucratic convenience. Many of the current Democratic leaders in the House and Senate were part of that surrender-without-a-fight civil liberties debacle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Bush administration pushed Congress to make it far easier for a president to declare martial law to avoid similar public relations debacles. An August 2006 White House press release decried \u201cthe equivalent of a weapon of mass effect being used on the city of New Orleans.\u201d \u201cWeapon of mass effect\u201d sounded like the rhetorical equivalent of computer-generated images in a low-budget movie. But that vaporous phrase helped stampede cowardly congressmen facing reelection a few months later.<\/p>\n<p>On September 30, 2006, Congress passed the Defense Authorization Act of 2006, a $500 billion, 591-page bill that included a few paragraphs razing a key constraint on presidential power. Almost 200 years earlier, Congress had passed the Insurrection Act to severely curtail the president\u2019s ability to deploy the military within the U.S., a law that was further buttressed by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. But there was a loophole: the Posse Comitatus Act was waived if the president invokes the Insurrection Act.<\/p>\n<p>Section 1076 of that 2006 law deleted the name \u201cInsurrection Act\u201d and replaced it with\u00a0 \u201cEnforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act.\u201d The 2006 \u201creform\u201d effectively authorized martial law declarations in response to a \u201cnatural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition\u201d\u2014and such \u201ccondition\u201d was neither defined nor limited. A smattering of pipe bomb explosions could satisfy the \u201cother condition\u201d\u2014as could the bomb explosions used last night to rob up to 10 ATM machines in Philadelphia. The 2006 law also empowered the president to commandeer the National Guard of any state to send to another state for up to 365 days\u2014part of the reason why every governor in the nation opposed the \u201creform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liberal Democrats heartily supported this frontal assault on the Rule of Law: the provision was co-written by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and openly endorsed by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA). The only senator to vigorously protest the bill was Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who warned that \u201cwe certainly do not need to make it easier for Presidents to declare martial law.\u201d He groused in the <i>Congressional Record<\/i>: \u201cUsing the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy.\u201d \u201cMartial law\u201d is a euphemism for military dictatorship\u2014a situation where anyone who disobeys soldiers\u2019 orders can be shot. Martial law effectively waives constitutional rights.<\/p>\n<p>The media and most of Capitol Hill ignored or cheered Section 1076 when it was enacted. (<em>The <\/em><em>American Conservative <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/articles\/working-for-the-clampdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">was<\/a> one of the few places to howl about the law.) Five months later, a <i>New York Times<\/i> editorial criticized the new law for \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/02\/19\/opinion\/19mon3.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">making martial law easier<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0The editorial implied that the law had \u201cbeen passed in the dead of night\u201d\u2014as if 50 governors, a senior senator from Vermont, and a bevy of activists had never voiced their opposition.<\/p>\n<p>In early 2008, after Democrats recaptured control of Congress, Sen. Leahy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/stories\/2008\/2\/4\/449417\/-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pushed through<\/a> a provision repealing Section 1076 and restoring prior safeguards. But it was astounding that almost all congressional Democrats signed off on conferring such power on Bush at the same time that liberals were routinely denouncing him as a dictator. Unfortunately, that is standard operating procedure on Capitol Hill where most members are grossly negligent on almost all constitutional issues, despite their press releases to the contrary.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_262230\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-262230\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-262230\" src=\"https:\/\/2qkhyt1u78lw1ll02a1kxrzq-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"473\" height=\"336\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-262230\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A U.S. Army (M126 155mm) howitzer in front of the U.S. Capitol in 2007. (Jim Bovard)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Trump may be threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act to browbeat governors to deploy more National Guard units and to sway mayors to more effectively suppress looting rampages. The rampages last night were lighter in most locales compared to the weekend, excepting a few places such as New York City. (Governor Andrew Cuomo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/cuomo-de-blasio-riot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">condemned<\/a> Mayor Bill de Blasio today for failing to curb looting last night and again sought permission to send in National Guard troops.) Private citizens in some places are stepping up to fill the void left by AWOL police, creating a rising peril that pillagers will be shot. And the rioters may finally be realizing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theapplepost.com\/2020\/05\/31\/image-shows-how-apple-blocks-iphones-stolen-from-its-stores\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">iPhones they plundered<\/a> are little more than paperweights since Apple easily zaps stolen phones.<\/p>\n<p>The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush in response to Los Angeles riots that, as Kelley Vlahos <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/state-of-the-union\/general-milley-checks-on-his-troops-on-the-streets-of-d-c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">noted here<\/a> yesterday, had left 60 people dead, burnt down 3,700 buildings, and inflicted a billion dollars in damage. The carnage in recent days in has ravaged many entrepreneurs and some neighborhoods but there will likely be a hundred times more businesses that perish because of the pandemic shelter-in-place orders imposed by governors than by the rioters.<\/p>\n<p>If Trump uses the Insurrection Act to send in U.S. troops into states and cities across the nation, he will \u201cown\u201d any subsequent carnage that the military fails to prevent. Formally invoking the Insurrection Act risks spurring renewed or fresh uprisings in many places that have simmered down. That could lead to greater pressure for a formal declaration of martial law. As Joseph Nunn of the Brennan Center for Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/judiciary\/491155-can-the-president-declare-martial-law-in-response-to-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">e<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/judiciary\/491155-can-the-president-declare-martial-law-in-response-to-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">xplained<\/a>, \u201cThe concept of \u2018martial law\u2019 is not well understood, let alone defined, in American law. It usually refers to military forces taking over the functions of ordinary civilian government. The key words are \u2018taking over.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Will the Trump administration be so foolish as to presume that their military commanders could miraculously take over and maintain order in cities that have not enjoyed good governance for decades? <strong>Martial law would be a political nuclear bomb that would provoke far more of the vehement protests that the Trump administration is seeking to quell<\/strong>. Perhaps even worse, martial law would be an\u00a0 \u201cAntifa Relief Act\u201d that spurred far more valorizing of vicious vandals.<\/p>\n<p><i>James Bovard is the author of\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2LsDHUb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lost Rights<\/a><i>,\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2uSsrq2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Attention Deficit Democracy<\/a><i>, and\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2mN0dbO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Public Policy Hooligan<\/a><i>. He is also a\u00a0<\/i>USA Today<i>\u00a0columnist. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JimBovard?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>@JimBovard<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American Conservative, June 3, 2020 Civil Liberties Trump\u2019s Finger on the Martial Law Trigger by James Bovard Giving the military total power would be a political nuclear bomb, provoking more unrest than we have now. |12:01 am Jim Bovard President Trump may be veering closer to declaring martial law in response to rioting in many [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1309,15,7,137,2373,2372,81,761,2345,708],"class_list":["post-14790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-antifa","tag-congress","tag-dictatorship","tag-george-w-bush","tag-insurrection-act","tag-leahy","tag-martial-law","tag-new-york-city","tag-riots","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Will Trump Declare Martial Law? - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/03\/will-trump-declare-martial-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Trump Declare Martial Law? - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American Conservative, June 3, 2020 Civil Liberties Trump\u2019s Finger on the Martial Law Trigger by James Bovard Giving the military total power would be a political nuclear bomb, provoking more unrest than we have now. |12:01 am Jim Bovard President Trump may be veering closer to declaring martial law in response to rioting in many [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/03\/will-trump-declare-martial-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-03T11:15:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-17T17:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1190\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"649\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/03\\\/will-trump-declare-martial-law\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/03\\\/will-trump-declare-martial-law\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Will Trump Declare Martial Law?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-03T11:15:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-17T17:00:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/03\\\/will-trump-declare-martial-law\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1378,\"commentCount\":2,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/03\\\/will-trump-declare-martial-law\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/martial-law-howitzer-Capitol-JPB-2007-photo-tweaked-for-Twitter.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Antifa\",\"Congress\",\"dictatorship\",\"George W. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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