The
Posse Comitatus Act is a
United States federal law (
18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20
Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878, by
President Rutherford B. Hayes which limits the powers of the
federal government in the use of
federal military personnel to enforce
domestic policies within the
United States. The Act was passed as an amendment to an army
appropriation bill following the end of
Reconstruction and was updated in 1956 and 1981.
The Act originally applied only to the
United States Army, but a subsequent amendment in 1956 expanded its scope to the
United States Air Force. In 2021, the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 further expanded the scope of the Act to cover the
United States Navy,
Marine Corps, and
Space Force. The Act does not prevent the
Army National Guard or the
Air National Guard under
state authority from acting in a
law enforcement capacity within its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state's governor. The
United States Coast Guard (under the
Department of Homeland Security) is not covered by the Act either, primarily because although it is a
armed service, it also has a
maritime law enforcement mission.
The title of the Act comes from the legal concept of
posse comitatus, the authority under which a
county sheriff, or other law officer, can conscript any able-bodied person to assist in keeping the peace
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The far left needs to stay in their lane...