Judiciary tomorrow: "“‘The Insurrection Act Rider’ ...

[pinkpops]

and State Control of the National Guard "

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=2713

What is this about?

[Greeby]

1. Statement from Leahy on changes to the Insurrection Act

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200702/020707.html

Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy
On Legislation To Repeal Changes To The Insurrection Act (S. 513)
February 7, 2007

Last year, Congress quietly made it easier for this President or any President to declare martial law. That’s right: In legislation added at the Administration’s request to last year’s massive Defense Authorization Bill, it has now become easier to bypass longtime posse comitatus restrictions that prevent the federal government’s use of the military, including a federalized National Guard, to perform domestic law enforcement duties. That change runs counter to our founding principles, to the optimal use of our superb National Guard here at home, and to whatever sensible reforms are needed to improve our Nation’s emergency response capabilities.

Today Senator Bond and I are introducing legislation to repeal these unwarranted and perilous changes, which were made to a little-known law called the Insurrection Act. Our amendment replaces every word, comma, and period from the original act and returns it to its original form. Repealing this ill-considered change in the Insurrection Act would allow Congress to have a more orderly, thoughtful, open and consultative discussion on whether such sensitive and massive powers should be changed, if at all. It is difficult to see how any Senator could disagree with the advisability of having a more transparent and thoughtful approach to this sensitive issue.

The Insurrection Act is a Reconstruction-era law that provides the major exemption from posse comitatus – the legal doctrine that bars the use of the military for law enforcement directed at the American people here at home. The Insurrection Act is designed to ensure that federal laws are enforced and to ensure that American citizens’ basic constitutional rights are respected and protected. When the Insurrection Act is invoked, the President can — without the consent of the respective governors -- federalize the National Guard and use it, along with the entire military, to carry out law enforcement duties. Treading as this does across basic constitutional issues relating to separation of power and to state and local sovereignty, this is a sweeping grant of authority to the President. Because the use of the military for domestic law enforcement is so sensitive an issue, the Act has been invoked only sparingly since it was enacted.

The primary reason that the law has been invoked so rarely is that there has been an inherent tension in the way it was crafted. Before it was changed last year, the law was purposefully ambiguous about when the President could invoke the Act in cases beyond a clear insurrection or when a state clearly violated federal law in its actions. Because there was this useful ambiguity – a constructive friction in the law -- a President until now would have to use the power with great caution, and with the impetus for appropriate consultation.-snip-

[pinkpops]

3. Thanks - and thank God for the mid-term election

[IChing]

4. I've been talking about this for years -your post should be posted seperately

so it gets the hits..................thanks for posting it.

[IDemo]

2. Can't tell with no other info offered on the link, but..

It pertains to the takeover of control of state National Guard units by the federal government during martial law declarations by the sitting chimpanz..I mean, president:

The Insurrection Act is a Reconstruction-era law that provides the major exemption from posse comitatus – the legal doctrine that bars the use of the military for law enforcement directed at the American people here at home. The Insurrection Act is designed to ensure that federal laws are enforced and to ensure that American citizens’ basic constitutional rights are respected and protected. When the Insurrection Act is invoked, the President can — without the consent of the respective governors -- federalize the National Guard and use it, along with the entire military, to carry out law enforcement duties. Treading as this does across basic constitutional issues relating to separation of power and to state and local sovereignty, this is a sweeping grant of authority to the President. Because the use of the military for domestic law enforcement is so sensitive an issue, the Act has been invoked only sparingly since it was enacted.

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200702/020707.html

[warren pease]

5. To date, this act has usually been invoked to break unions and murder a dozen or so strikers

It was used to crush the IWW (Wobblies) in the early part of the 20th century, and many railroad, mine, factory and mill strikes dating back to the 1870s. In general, the act serves to protect the elite and their property from the actions of the people who make them all their money. Gotta love capitalism, especially when the ruling class controls the executive branch so completely that the president will order federal troops to fight a proxy war for the ultra rich against their own employees, who have the gall to bitch about miserable wages, lethal conditions and horrible hours.

And I wonder why BushCo even needs this anymore, since Blackwater is emerging as the enforcement arm of the regime. Ah, well. Never hurts to have a backup plan.

wp