Democratic Underground
With Little Notice, Sen. Leahy (D-VT) Pushes Through Repeal of a Scary Bush Power Grab
by odum
Gone virtually unnoticed by the media was a true rarity: a Bush power grab, pushed through by the previous Republican Congress actually rolled back.
Of the many disturbing things this President and his GOP Congress did, this was one of the more chilling. Passed and signed into law in a very hush-hush manner, the law opens up the door for Bush to use the National Guard and other military forces domestically for almost any purpose he might deem appropriate.
………………………
What could happen under the new law? As just one example, let’s say hundreds of demonstrators in Boston engaged in civil disobedience, sitting-in on the Boston Common to protest the country’s policies in Iraq, and traffic ground to a halt. Under the new law, the president could order in the Massachusetts National Guard to clear out the protesters even if the Massachusetts governor opposed this.
Indeed, the president could order the Guard of any state into any other state-even if the governors of both states objected.
In the end, Leahy got the right people front and center before his committee. From Newsday:
Upon learning of the change, infuriated governors, National Guard
associations and local law enforcement groups mounted a campaign to
repeal the language, which they say usurps state authority and damages
domestic disaster response.
Spurred by belated public awareness of the law, lawmakers from both
sides of the aisle raised objections.
“This law authorizes the president to essentially strip the control of a
state Guard unit from a state’s governor without consent,” Leahy said
during an April 24 hearing the Judiciary Committee held on the issue.
“No governor was consulted, no debate, no hearing, nothing took place,”
North Carolina Gov. Michael F. Easley, a Democrat, said at the April
hearing, adding that the law would hurt disaster response.
The repeal went into the latest Defense authorization, and quietly, and with little notice, a Bush power-grab was actually rolled back. How often does that happen?
It does appear that at least the overall authority of National Guard troop deployment has been returned to the Governors.
Leahy deserves a medal. Or at least he deserves recognition as one of the very few politicians we might be able to trust.
I did note the repeal of the portion of the act giving control of Nat’l Guard troops to the President… and that’s good, but not the whole story.
On my page discussing Bush’s Constitutional violations (http://impeachforpeacemarshall.org/constitution.htm), I made the following observation:
On June 22, 2006, the Congress modified the Insurrection Act as part of the 2007 Defense Appropriations Bill. Section 1076 of the new law changes Sec. 333 of the “Insurrection Act,” and widens the President’s ability to deploy troops within the United States to enforce the laws. Under this act, the President may also deploy troops as a police force during a natural disaster, epidemic, serious public health emergency, terrorist attack, or other condition, when the President determines that the authorities of the state are incapable of maintaining public order.
The bill also modified Sec. 334 of the Insurrection Act, giving the President authority to order the dispersal of either insurgents or “those obstructing the enforcement of the laws.”
The new law changed the name of the chapter from “Insurrection” to “Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order.
I am unable to discern, from the two stories on the repeal of the Nat’l Guard powers, whether or not the substantial changes in Posse Comitatus have been repealed.