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PERRIN LOVETT

~ Deo Vindice

PERRIN LOVETT

Tag Archives: Patriot Act

Nineteen Years Later

11 Friday Sep 2020

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

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19 years, 9/11, 9/11/2001, decline, history, hoax, Patriot Act, War

Nineteen Years Later

 

It was a clear Tuesday morning. Driving towards another day in my second year of law school, I turned on talk radio as I sometimes did back then. In between discussion about things I can’t remember, they kept referring to an airplane which had struck one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. The reference was almost light-hearted. They mentioned it was a smaller plane. They correctly recalled that, back in the Forties, a wayward B-25 bomber had lodged itself in the Empire State Building. I was interested but didn’t accord the event too much import.

All of that changed, soon after, with breaking news of a second plane hitting the other Tower. Perhaps you too remember the event. What you were doing and where you were. How you received the news.

I didn’t need W to stop entertaining school children and tell me, though he did anyway. A flying machine hitting a tall building is a possibility. A second occurrence within minutes is an attack.

My drive ended concurrently with 43’s short remarks and with my entry into a graduate parking lot. The very first person I saw and spoke with was a real Tom Ironsides character. I won’t say that “he knew,” but he did know a lot. Though at the time I didn’t connect the dots, the morning’s televised news synched with, if it did not confirm, his knowledge or suspicions. 

Nineteen years later, we have more suspicions than knowledge. 

A little over two months after the event that changed America’s nascent Twenty-first Century, I flew up to Washington on a 767 that I essentially had to myself. There, in the Yankee Capital, I met with and heard from some of the authors of the newly-enacted Patriot Act. During all the bluster, bragging, and war-whooping, they failed to disclose that the Act was drafted well before 9/11. Funny, that.

A little over a week after my DC excursion, I again flew north, to Boston. Over New York, exactly like the scene from THE SUBSTITUTE, the clouds parted, and I beheld lower Manhattan, still-smoldering rubble and all. The sight, smoke column aside, was pretty clear. Less lucent was why they, at the time so busy removing hundreds of thousands of tons of wrecked steel and concrete, carted all of it away for immediate smelting and destruction. In retrospect, it wasn’t the best forensic procedure. No mind. 

Back then, we’d only heard the barest mention of the many friendly foreign nationals being spirited away home, regardless of the conditions of their apprehension. Come to think of it, today we have heard little more.

We did hear much about the “new normal.” Sound recently familiar? We heard that things would never be the same again. We also got a load of civil liberty and general societal disruption not rivaled until the arrival of the hoax-ish Invisible Enemy, which was just as likely as not unleashed by the same people who helped take down WTC 1, 2, & 7. So many went along because it felt patriotic. It felt right. It took the focus off of the Anthrax hoaxes. It obfuscated lingering fears of the tech recession, now erased from official reports. There was more to occupy a frightened mind.

We heard plenty about war. War! War! Forevermore! And we got it. Them. Plural. Still in-progress after nearly two decades. In an event simply stiff with Israelis and Saudis, nineteen alleged attackers from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, operating in America, after transiting through Europe were blamed. Naturally, we attacked … Afghanistan and Iraq. Yes, there is a notable failure of logic in this entire episode. 

A few years after THAT DAY, I had lunch with a senior judge, an older, wiser man. We ate at the greasiest, and therefore best burger joint in town. The conversation turned to the war(s). He wondered out loud what was one positive thing America had gained from the adventures. A fine question, then and now. Let’s see. Trillions in fake debt money wasted? Americans maimed and killed by the thousands? Foreigners annihilated by the country-load? Complete loss of international order? Domestic police state? Blow-back attacks and migration invasion? What? But, again, no mind.

Much of this, or most of this, is, after so much time, forgotten. We have always taken our shoes off at the airport. We have always been at war with Syria. We have always submitted to credit checks at the bank. We have always obstructed investigations and concluded the same with a giant question mark. We have always blithely ignored comprehensive engineering reports. We have always wasted lives and money. And. So. On.

WTC, NYC, circa 1990. (Fuzzy) Picture by Perrin Lovett.

Next year will mark the twentieth anniversary of that great, horrific turning-point in Imperial history. Not that I’ll watch, but I expect the government and their media pets will pay homage to the austere meaning – of which most cannot truly imagine and only the insidious few truly understand. I’ll certainly have my say, such as it shall be. Nevertheless, the history of the fading United States shortens. Maybe someday, someone else will suspect less and know more. They might finally discover and explain. But, separated by time, they will not remember. Even now, do you?

Perrin Lovett is a right-wing Christian nationalist writer and author in the American South. He would like to concentrate more on fiction, and he would really like to see Western Civilization survive. He also has no use for the luciferian idiocy at Facebergbook. 

9/11: The Political Gift That Keeps On Giving

06 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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911, America, Congress, Constitution, corruption, crime, evil, freedom, government, law, murder, Patriot Act, The People, War

9/11/2001, while murder for 3,000 Americans and a nightmare for the rest of us, has been a boon for the low-rent political class in the D.C. swamp. It allowed them to: create new agencies even to the cabinet level of corruption; start two big useless wars and more smaller (but still useless) wars; steal Trillion$ from the people to give to Wall Street and the MIC; place the whole population under surveillance; kill countless people and destroy countless things; stomp the Constitution and the Rule of Law into the mud; keep the people alarmed to the point of fatigue, and; provide a (terrible) reason for their own continued existence.

Nearly 15 years after the attacks the trauma of the day itself is largely forgotten while life under the new police state has been accepted almost universally. There was a hasty, sham investigation into the event but the “official story” was already contrived even as the horrors unfolded. Everyone, including the 9/11 Commission, new the Commission’s work was rigged … rigged and/or obstructed.

The Executive Branch mislead and hindered the 9/11 Commission and destroyed evidence in order to sabotage future investigations.

Presumption of a Cover-Up …

Judges and lawyers know that – if someone intentionally destroys evidence – he’s probably trying to hide his crime. American law has long recognized that destruction of evidence raises a presumption of guilt for the person who destroyed the evidence.

So what does it mean when the US government intentionally destroyed massive amounts of evidence related to 9/11?

It means the government is guilty and should be disbanded immediately.

Google.

As part of the post-9/11 wars and money-making rackets, the government has held various “terrorists” at GITMO, some with show trials, some just sitting around … forever. The government has lazily farmed out both the prosecution and defense of these men to a private company, SRA International. The same team handling both sides in “court” – conflict of interest anyone??

The Defense Department has paid SRA almost $39 million over the last five years, U.S. government contracting records show, for the cases of just seven accused terrorists — those charged in the 9/11 attacks and two others charged in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen.

SRA has supplied roughly 45 investigators, intelligence analysts, and others to both the prosecution and defense teams at the military commissions, which are trying the cases at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. About a fifth of the total military commission staff are SRA contractors, a Defense Department spokesperson said. And the firm’s “proprietary software,” records show, is used to process the evidence in the case.

There really isn’t any Due Process concern as the system is designed to avoid any acquittals:

In 2008, the former chief prosecutor for Guantanamo’s military commissions disclosed that the trials have been rigged to prevent any possibility of acquittal.

Specifically, the head of the Guantanamo tribunal — who is actually in charge of both prosecuting and defending the suspects — told the former chief prosecutor:

‘Wait a minute, we can’t have acquittals. If we’ve been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can’t have acquittals, we’ve got to have convictions.’

In addition, three other Guantanamo prosecutors — Maj. Robert Preston, Capt. John Carr and Capt. Carrie Wolf — “asked to be relieved of duties after saying they were concerned that the process was rigged. One said he had been assured he didn’t need to worry about building a proper case; convictions were assured.”

Another former Guantanamo prosecutor resigned, saying in a sworn declaration that the government pulled all sorts of shenanigans in one case.

The head of the tribunal also said that — even if the defendants are somehow acquitted — they may not be released from Guantanamo.

No wonder the American Bar Association, “which the Pentagon had said would help arrange such representation, has refused to participate because it objects to the trial procedures.”

Despite all this fraud and criminal misconduct the only thing keeping the rats of Congress up at night is Rand Paul stalling parts of the nefarious PATRIOT ACT.

Republicans, furious at Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), are accusing him of jeopardizing national security to further his presidential campaign.

Paul used Senate procedure to successfully — and temporarily — block the chamber’s push to renew parts of the Patriot Act on Sunday.

This caused three sections of the controversial surveillance bill, including the National Security Agency’s bulk records-collection program, to expire early Monday morning.

Again, when you go vote (unless you luckily get to vote for Paul), this is what you’re getting – pure, unadulterated corruption and evil. Keep letting the fox into the hen-house and he’ll keep eating the chickens.

Liberty, Death, or Something In Between?

09 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

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America, Benjamin Franklin, Constitution, Empire, freedom, government, H.L. Mencken, John Whitehead, Liberty, lies, Patrick Henry, Patriot Act, security, slavery, The People

Much, over the long years, has been made of freedom and the unnecessary curtailing thereof. Consider the following quotes:

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Patrick Henry, Richmond, VA, 1775.

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Benjamin Franklin.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken.

I think I have quoted all of these lines before. They are worth repeating.  John W. Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute has a terrific article along similar lines on the false security based demise of freedom in 21st Century America:

‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’: The Loss of Our Freedoms in the Wake of 9/11.

What began with the passage of the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse. Since then, we have been terrorized, traumatized, and acclimated to life in the American Surveillance State.

The bogeyman’s names and faces change over time, but the end result remains the same: our unquestioning acquiescence to anything the government wants to do in exchange for the phantom promise of safety and security has transitioned us to life in a society where government agents routinely practice violence on the citizens while, in conjunction with the Corporate State, spying on the most intimate details of our personal lives.

Whitehead.

The good news is that as the American Empire collapses under its own weight, things will get better for the free people. The bad news is that things will be painful along the way. Of course, for the sheep, the unaware, and the unfree, things will get worse and stay worse. In any event, I think Henry had it right.

 

Far Beyond Control

13 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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America, anarchy, army, Bush, churches, Clinton, Congress, Courts, crazy, crime, Democrats, election, executive, fear, fools, freedom, George Carlin, government, law, law. people, military, Obama, Patriot Act, police, politicians, Posse Comitatus Act, republic, Republicans, Ron Paul, sheep, Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, special forces, standing army, students, taxes, terror, Texas, U.S., veterans, voting

“Your” government is officially far past the point where it could be possibly reigned in. Next year must hold in store an election.  I keep hearing and reading that the Republicans and Democrats are preparing their usual assortment of tired psychopaths from which the little people are to select their future “leadership.”  It could be that I have stepped through a worm hole to the past because I keep hearing names like Bush and Clinton.

As George Carlin used to say, “this is the best we can do.”  It will never get better. Incredibly, it gets worse every four years.  I gave up on voting and political participation a long time ago.  I stand by my statement that the last, best chance we had to save the Republic was to elect Ron Paul President in 2008.  We missed it.  Today, I lead a happy life of personal anarchy.  My only involvement with the government is paying taxes and evading the traffic cops.  It works well.  The sheep still don’t see it.

You may have seen or read about the increasing militarization of government forces – the blurring of lines between domestic police and the standing martial army.  I wrote about it previously.

pi052704a1

(USA! USA!  Google.)

Speaking of blurred lines, I, being a recovering attorney, am THE expert on the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA).  The PCA was put into place many, many years ago to halt the use of military forces from providing ordinary law enforcement within the territorial confines of the U.S.  It has not worked.

Law after law and action after action have provided a myriad of exemptions to the PCA. Drugs, terror, riots, training – you name it.  The PCA is moot.

So it is today that most highly trained, deadliest and most feared elements of our armed forces – the special forces – are on the streets training with local police agencies.  It’s like Barney Fife meeting the Seals in Mayberry.  Otis better watch out.

The purpose of elite military forces is to carry out daring missions ABROAD (not at home) in order to disrupt enemy activities with minimal effort or notice.  They are the last force one should want operating amidst the people at home.  This too is lost on the MTV-watching public.

The people are afraid of everything.  Should the government announce pillow cases are tools of terrorism, the people will dutifully burn pillow cases in the town square.  The fools will demand and cheer as the government bombs pillow factories in places like Libya and Iraq.  Imaginary specters are fought with ferocity and pomp.

Meanwhile, real threats go virtually unnoticed.  Recently, the same week that saw the U.S. military engage in various live terror trainings in the Southwest (against fictitious enemies) saw real terrorists attack a cartoon convention in Texas.  Thankfully, for us, the sane, Texas is not Paris.  In the Lone Star State, muslin extremist face summary execution from even lone police officers.  Don’t mess with Texas.  But, no-one else has drawn the corollary (or disconnect) here.  The vaunted military trains for an attack the police can’t handle at the same time the police handle an attack the military can’t.  So it goes.

The sheep graze on.  Fox News, radio talkers and modern “churches” have instilled in the ignorant people a sense of worship for all things military, all things government – so long as it’s the American military and government.  When two groups of drunks meet at the beach, and fight, the sympathy of the nation goes to that group of martial disposition.  No mind is given to reality.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has just tried to put the brakes on the monstrosity known as the USA Patriot Act.  The Act was intended to grant additional unchecked power to the central government.  Some in the Judiciary have noted this and its underlying illegality.  It does not matter, as Ron Paul notes.  The Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama/Bush/Clinton/Etc. executive is above the law and will refuse to abide by any Court ruling which limits their authority.  The Courts, truly least of the three branches, are powerless to enforce their rulings.  The Congress, fat, bribed and stoned into complacency, will do nothing.  The sheep graze.

So, pontificate as you will about the coming election.  I may listen but I won’t respond. I’m not rude, it’s just that I don’t believe in fairy tales no matter how entertaining. Next November, you go out and waste your time and energy, saving us from the other side. Afterwards, you may find me at the local bar or cigar shop doing what I do.  Or, you could just join me in freedom land.  Your choice.

Posse Comitatus

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by perrinlovett in Uncategorized

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"Civil" War, 107th Congress, 18 USC 1385, 19th Century, 20th Century, 45th Congress, A Well regulated Militia, Abram S. Hewitt, abuse, air force, Alexander Hamilton, America, army, Articles of Confederation, Attorney General, Barrack Obama, beltway snipers, Ben Hill, Caesar, capital felony, civil power, communism, Congress, Congressional Record, Constitution, criminals, Declaration of Independence, district attorneys, drones, Drug "War", due process, Empire, Federalist Papers, freedom, Gallic War, Gauis Curio, George W. Bush, Georgia, governors, happiness, history, Homeland Security, Japan, Jimmy Carter, John B. Anderson, judicial review, Kentucky, King George, Latin, law, legislature, Loeb Classics, Marx, Maryland, Michigan, military, National Guard, Natural Law, NDAA, New York, north, Patriot Act, Posse Comitatus, President, public hanging, Reconstruction, republic, Rome, Ronald Reagan, scholars, sheriffs, slavery, south, States, Supreme Court, taxs, The Founders, The Time Given, Thomas Jefferson, treason, tyranny, Waco, Washington, William Kimmel, wisdom, Wounded Knee

I love follow-up stories.  The other day I did a piece about military drones killing Americans and mentioned the Posse Comitatus Act as a possible solution.  I said I’d have more to say about the Act soon.  Here it is:

On June 18th of this year we will all celebrate the 135th birthday of the Posse Comitatus Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1385.  Happy Birthday, Pos-Com!!!  Maybe you do not share my zeal?  Perhaps you have never heard of this great Act or maybe you don’t know what it means.  Allow me to educate you.  The Posse Comitatus Act means absolutely nothing.  Those who will celebrate the creation of this dead letter are those who should be prosecuted under it – namely those members of the various executive branches of the Federal and state governments. 

“18 U.S.C. § 1385” is a legal citation to the United States Code, referring to Section 1385 of Title 18.  Title 18 is the federal criminal code thus, Posse Comitatus creates a criminal offense.  Like 99.99% of federal criminal laws it only sets forth a felony offense and punishment.  Unlike most federal crimes though, the Act carries a lower than usual maximum sentence and it HAS NEVER BEEN PROSECUTED!

In law school I wrote a lengthy research paper on the Act – Posse Comitatus – written for my advanced Constitutional Decision-Making seminar taught by the very Honorable Professor John B. Anderson.  Anderson represented the people of Illinois’s 16th Congressional District for twenty years.  You may recall his 1980 independent run for President against Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.  You may also recall his book The American Economy We Need from 1984.

I consider Professor (as I always call him) Anderson a good friend.  Once he and his wife, Keke, graciously received my wife and I at their beautiful home on a visit to Washington.  However, back when I initially presented my paper proposal to him he seemed a bit skeptical.  I suspect that, at the time, even he had not heard of the Act.  As the semester progressed though our Nation’s Capital came under the terror of the Beltway snipers.  Anderson called me one day and said he had just heard a news report on the radio about the snipers, the hunt therefore, and … the Posse Comitatus Act.  He was hooked and I received an “A” for my efforts. 

Over the ensuing decade I have ripped the paper apart, added to it, and conducted additional research on the Act and many related matters.  In the not to distant future (later in 2013 perhaps) I look forward to publishing a book based in part on my original thesis.  The book is tentatively called A Well Regulated Militia (Amazon/CreateSpace/Kindle) and will relate to all things Second Amendment, Militia, and tyranny prevention (and reversal).  This would include, for reasons cited herein, below, the Pose Comitatus Act.  This work will be far more substantial than The Time Given (soon, I promise), though that treatise is no less important to the scope of human happiness than anything else I write.

I hope the book-buying public also gives my work an “A” and I experience mass market financial success.  Remember, you need not actually read a book; what counts is buying it (multiple copies if possible).  I have limited the many notes and many of the citations which accompanied my old paper and which will inevitably appear in the book.  For the book I intend to clean them up, eliminate them if possible, or relegate them to the seldom viewed “Notes” section at the back. I hear notes, like charts and graphs, drive down sales.  Pictures have been known to help though:

Minutemen-1776

(Our Posse.  Source: Google images).

The history of the Act is a great part of the history of the 19th century in America.  As you may recall in the middle of that century we had a rather unpleasant incident which resulted in the deaths of about 600,000 men.  I refuse to call it The Civil War because it wasn’t.  A “civil war” is where two or more factions fight for control of a central government.  In our case, the Southerners wanted to be free of Washington, not in control of it.  It also wasn’t a declared war (I’ve had debates with other attorneys about what that meant). My northern friends often ask me my opinions about the war.  I can sum the up easily: it was as deadly as it was unnecessary. 

I am in the minority of honest legal historians who believe that the southern states had every authority to seceed from the union.  I think any state today has that same authority.  Nothing in the Constitution compels eternal membership and several states expressly reserved the ability to withdraw at any time.  They asserted a Natural Law position which, being universal, would seem to apply to even those states which joined without such reservation. 

Back in the Nineteenth Century, America was plagued with major problems – debt, financial scams, economic warfare, lying politicians, and, of course, slavery.  Come to think of it, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

You may recall from history that once the “war” was over and the Union reunited, a probationary period was imposed on the southern states.  This period was known as Reconstruction.  It was rank with abuse.  In numerous cases the legislatures of southern states and other institutions were invaded or harassed by regular army troops.  The Posse Comitatus Act was passed partly in  response to these alarming events. 

“Posse Comitatus” is a Latin phrase roughly meaning “power of the county.”  “Posse” in latin is a verb which means to “be able” or to “have power”.  “Comitatus” means “company” or “retinue.”  In other words, it refers to the local militia – those men available for service in times of crisis.   An aside, suited for a future article: “militia” does not correlate with the “National Guard.” 

The concept of the militia predates and was well established at the time of our nation’s founding.  Congress still acknowledges the militia separately from the Guard; the Guard and the militia are differentiated under Titles 10 and 32 of the U.S. Code.  Every State maintains a militia (at least in the law books) separate from the Guard.  In Georgia, the State militia is officially the Georgia State Defense Force.  See: O.C.G.A. § 38-2-23, et seq. 

The Guard was instituted in the early twentieth century and is essentially a back-up force for the regular national army – it is sometimes on loan to the several States.  Enough on that for now.

The Pose Comitatus Act reads, in its entirety: “Whoever, except in cases and 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.”   18 U.S.C. § 1385.   

The Act (let’s call it the “PCA” from here out) originally started out as an amendment to the Army Appropriations Bill (H.R. 4867) for the fiscal year ending in 1879.  This would be during the forty-fifth congress, second session, in 1878.  The initial mention of the concept of the PCA as an amendment came from Rep. William Kimmel of Maryland on May 20, 1878.  Kimmel was cut off in mid speech by time constraints; however, he successfully laid the framework for the PCA amendment.  See: 7 Cong. Rec. 3586. 

H.R. 4867, PCA and all, eventually became law on June 18, 1878, hence the pending birthday celebration.  See: 7 Cong. Rec. 4686.  Some scholars have speculated the PCA was enacted only to end the use of he army in supervising southern elections and legislative sessions.  Earlier I said the PCA was partly enacted for the reasons said scholars state.  I, however, dug deep into Congressional history (boy, what fun) and found a more complicated picture. 

The roots behind the theory of Posse Comitatus go much deeper and further back in history than the American Republic.  The concept was present at the end of the Roman Republic, more than twenty centuries ago.  Gauis Curio attempted to disarm Caesar’s returning army in order to preserve domestic tranquility.  See: Caesar, The Gallic War, Loeb Classical Library, 587 (Harvard U. Press, 2000).  As you know, Caesar “crossed the Rubicon” and the Empire shortly thereafter commenced.

In early America the fear of armed military forces present in everyday life was of grave concern to our Founding Fathers.  Beginning the Declaration of Independence with a nod to Natural Law, Thomas Jefferson listed the first grievance against King George that “He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. … He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.”  Dec. Independence, para. 13 – 14 (1776).  Jefferson listed various other similar complaints against the King.

Jefferson was not alone in his fear of standing armies, provisions against which found their way into both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution (remember the Constitution?).  In The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, himself not the greatest proponent of freedom, railed against the standing army as “unsupported by any precise or intelligible designations of reasons.”  The Federalist, No. 27 (Hamilton).   

The Forty-Fifth Congress considered several issues in developing the PCA: a standing army versus a militia; limited central government; and, the proper (if any) uses for an army within the confines of the territory of the Republic.  A sub-issue of concern at the end of the 19th Century was the potential rise of communism, which Congress greatly and rightly feared.  Karl Marx was still alive at the time of the PCA debate, his works on “economics” relatively fresh off the presses.  Rep. Abram S. Hewitt of New York commented on the subject: “If you want to fan communism, increase your standing army and you will have enough of it.”  7 Cong. Rec. H. 3538 (1878). 

Rep. Kimmel stated the then current use of the army in domestic affairs was a direct “violation of the Constitution.”  He cited numerous examples of federal troops aiding tax agents, governors, sheriffs, and district attorneys in Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, and New York.  7 Cong. Rec. 3580 – 3582.  Again, it is popularly said that the PCA was the result of Southern states fed up with the misuse of federal soldiers during elections. Most of Kimmel’s examples were responses to tax collections and labor disputes.  In 1878, as today, New York and Michigan are generally regarded as northern states.  Other Representatives related similar troubles all across the country.  The problem was national in scope.

In the Senate the debate continued.  Senator Benjamin Hill of Georgia remarked, “A posse comitatus is a wholly different thing from an army; it is different in every respect from an army…”  7 Cong. Rec. 4246.  He continued, “it never was lawful, it never shall be lawful, to employ the army as a posse comitatus until you destroy the distinction between civil power and the military power in this country.”  Id. 

As the PCA is a criminal law and given the federal Empire’s love of prosecuting any and everything, one would expect numerous cases under the PCA over the past century or so.  One would be mistaken.  There has never been one single case brought against anyone under the PCA.  This may be due to the fact that the most likely suspects are government officials.  They don’t like to go after their own.  Honor among thieves you know.

The closest semblance of judicial review of the PCA has been in the form of indirect rulings in cases involving other crimes.  Defendants have asserted, as a defense, an alleged violation of the PCA by government officials executing some duty (such as drug enforcement).  This defense universally fails.  I will not bore my audience with any particular cases, though they date from at least 1975 and continue into this Century.

Oddly, I, the great authority on this matter, was once threatened with the potential of facing a PCA violation!  Yes, yours truly, Perrin Lovett.  It all stemmed from one of those lovely anti-family law cases of which I have previously expounded: https://perrinlovett.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/anti-family-law/.  I believe it was a custody dispute. 

Anyway, the defendant was a member of the U.S. Army stationed at Camp Zama in Japan.  Thus, I was tasked with the trouble of perfecting International legal service of process which is not necessarily the easiest thing to do.  I decided to circumvent technicalities by having the defendant simply acknowledge he had received my petition.  Not having an exact address for him, I contacted several offices at the Camp in an attempt to solicit their help in the matter.  The Provost Marshall’s office quickly told me they could not assist with serving a civil lawsuit without running afoul of the PCA.  They actually said that; you know, from the history given here, this type of situation was not within the original intention of Congress.  I pointed out that I was not asking for such, just for friendly information.  As luck would have it, I located the defendant on my own and the case went forward.  As usual, no-one was happy.  Correction: I am happy to have avoided being the only PCA prosecution in history.

Back to reality.  There have been cases innumerable of the military becoming involved in civil law enforcement – from the “war” on drugs to the massacre at Waco, to the Wounded Knee massacre, to the hunt for the D.C. snipers, etcetera, ad nauseum.  Why then, have there been no criminal cases arising from the incidents?

The answer lies in the actions of both the Executive branch and, especially, with Congress.  Exception after exception to the PCA have been enacted over the long years.  Congress has all but rendered the PCA a dead letter to the point the Act is useless for its intended purpose.  

It is somewhat interesting that, having taken the teeth away, Congress has not fully repealed the PCA.  This may be because federal laws never die, they linger forever, used or not.  Amazingly, as recently as 2005, the 107th Congress reaffirmed the spirit of the PCA, literally, but not meaningfully.  “The Congress reaffirms the continued importance of …[the PCA] … and it is the sense of Congress that nothing in this Act [H.R. 5005 – creating the Department of Homeland Security] should be construed to alter the applicability of such section to any use of the Armed Forces as a posse comitatus to execute the laws.”  H.R. 5005 § 780(a) – (b). 

The Homeland Security debacle … Act … followed the Patriot Act and decades of “war” on drugs, crime, and your freedom.  Various National Defense Authorization Acts have followed.  The result has been the complete decimation of the PCA.  President Bush (No. 43) and his successor, Barack Obama, have made clear their intention to use the military whenever necessary, wherever needed, to keep us safe, of course.  Obama even claims he can use military weapons to kill without Due Process.  The protests against his claim are less than deafening.  I protest!

I have some suggestions for changes and improvements to restore the vitality of the PCA.  This is one of the few instances where you will ever hear me call for a new or continued statute.  In the name of freedom, Congress should amend the PCA first to kill all of the previous exemptions.  Second, they should specify that the law only applies to those members of the federal, state, or local governments who would dare to use federal military force to accomplish civil law enforcement of any kind; they could define a violation as an act of government employee-specific treason. 

The punishment could be expanded accordingly.  Perhaps the original punishment might be appropriate in minor cases.  Others, such as those which involve the mass killing of American citizens could be made capital felonies.  Congress has the Constitutional authority to also limit the review of any conviction from any court – including the Supreme Court; thus, when a high official (an attorney general for example) orders Army tanks to drive into a church and burn the worshippers within alive, that official could be convicted under the PCA and immediately hanged in public.  This might serve as a warning to future would-be tyrants. 

Again, this is only a suggestion.  I do not relish the idea of killing even to avenge killing.  I reconsider, reluctantly, when the dread act(s) have the potential of continuing against all of the free people.

This leads me back to my article on drones picking off the voting, tax-suffering public, https://perrinlovett.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/droning-on-and-on/.  A President, already forbidden to use military drones against domestic targets (his already unConstitutional Orders overridden by my proposed law) might think twice about defying the law if he knew the gallows awaited his defiance.

The issues raised herein may likely lead to other related articles.  All of which concern you and those you hold dear.  It is your freedom, security, and happiness that drives me to raise the alarm – the same alarm raised by the Founders and the forgotten members of the forty-fifth Congress.  Bless their wisdom and fore-sighted concern.

Perrin Lovett

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