Can Martial Law Happen in America?

[Celerity]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/opinion/trump-south-korea-martial-law.html

https://archive.ph/Dmfqx



Well, that was dangerous — and absurd. On Tuesday, the president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, suddenly declared martial law. He suspended political activity in one of the world’s most advanced and prosperous democracies and attempted to place the media under government control. Seemingly confused and surprised troops struggled to contain a rebellious National Assembly, which voted immediately to end military rule, but not before a series of chaotic scenes that shocked the nation. The president backed down, mere hours after triggering a political crisis that threatened democratic rule. As the drama played out in South Korea, my phone lit up with a question from friends and media colleagues — including from some of the most sober-minded people I know. Can this happen here? Can an American president — or any other American leader — create a similar political emergency?

The short answer is no. The longer answer is yes — if a president (or a governor) exploits ambiguities in American law. Let’s deal with the short answer first. Unlike South Korea, the United States has no clear constitutional mechanism for a president to simply declare military rule. State governors do have the ability to declare martial law in the event of an emergency, but governors can’t abrogate the federal Constitution, and any declaration of state military control is subject to judicial review. There have been a number of limited declarations of martial law in American history. Gen. Andrew Jackson declared martial law in New Orleans for three months during the War of 1812, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared martial law in Hawaii after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to give two examples.

In addition, President Abraham Lincoln declared martial law in 1862 and applied it to “all rebels and insurgents, their aiders and abettors, within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia draft or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and comfort to rebels against the authority of the United States.” But there is no American constitutional authority for military rule comparable to the one in the South Korean Constitution. The longer answer, however, is far less reassuring. While there is no constitutional mechanism for military control, history demonstrates that American leaders will sometimes press their war powers beyond the constitutional breaking point (while Roosevelt’s declaration of martial law in Hawaii was defensible, his internment of Japanese Americans was not).

Even worse, there is a statutory basis for military intervention in domestic affairs, and the statute — called the Insurrection Act — is so poorly drafted that I have come to call it America’s most dangerous law. The Insurrection Act is almost as old as the United States itself. The law dates to 1792, and it permits the president to deploy American troops on American streets to impose order and maintain government control. There is nothing inherently wrong with granting a president such power, so long as it is properly circumscribed. There are numerous examples of lawless defiance of government authority, from the Whiskey Rebellion in George Washington’s second term, to the Civil War, to southern resistance to Reconstruction and to the Los Angeles riots in 1992 (the last time the act was invoked).

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[FirstLight]

1. ...the Insurrection Act is the one he kept blathering about during the campaign...

And we ALL know he didn't look that one up Himself. There's powers at work here behind the scenes that are very dangerous, indeed

Hence, while I am living my life "as usual" for the most part ...Contingency Plan B is ever-present in the back of my mind and I don't wanna even think about how to pull that one off... :zoinks:

[Lovie777]

2. Yes..

Shithole have a team working on it.

[paparush]

3. Maga's defining feature

is a willingness to exploit loopholes and to go against precedent and tradition.

You know Stephen Miller is itching to declare martial law.

[Timewas]

4. T-rump reelected

With that as a backdrop. yes it can happen here, anything is possible now, and likely.

[Crunchy Frog]

5. I doubt we'd see the same level of resistance in this country as we've seen in others.

We're not the bastion of freedom that we tell ourselves we are.

[berksdem]

6. wish I could upvote this a thousand time (N/T)