Declaration of Re-Dependence: Using the Military to “Prevent Crime”
Trump issues an executive order canceling the Posse Comitatus Act—and the Magna Carta
On Monday, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order so breathtakingly un-American, unconstitutional and anti-democratic, it’s difficult to imagine any lawyer, no matter what their beliefs, would sign off on it. The order, entitled “STRENGTHENING AND UNLEASHING AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT TO PURSUE CRIMINALS AND PROTECT INNOCENT CITIZENS,” completely ignores foundational constitutional law preventing the federal government from using the military in domestic affairs without the consent of Congress.
The purpose of the order is made crystal clear in Section 1. Trump wants a nationalized Gestapo, controlled by the White House, to enforce male, white domination in America.
When local leaders demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible, crime thrives and innocent citizens and small business owners suffer. My Administration will therefore: establish best practices at the State and local level for cities to unleash high-impact local police forces; protect and defend law enforcement officers wrongly accused and abused by State or local officials; and surge resources to officers in need.
My Administration will work to ensure that law enforcement officers across America focus on ending crime, not pursuing harmful, illegal race- and sex-based “equity” policies. [emphasis added]
In Section 2, Trump makes clear that he intends to use the money that he extorted from high profile law firms like Paul Weiss, to defend cops that abuse their power.
This mechanism shall include the use of private-sector pro bono assistance for such law enforcement officers.
Section 4 of Trump’s order, however, is a death blow to liberty in America:
Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the heads of agencies as appropriate, shall increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist State and local law enforcement.
(b) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall determine how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities, and personnel can most effectively be utilized to prevent crime.
The text of Trump’s executive order is a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act which reads:
18 U.S.C. § 1385. Use of Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force as posse comitatus: Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, or the Space 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.
The Posse Comitatus Act was put in place to enshrine one of the core separations of power contemplated by the Founders in the Declaration of Independence:
The Declaration of Independence listed among our grievances against Great Britain that the King had “kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures,” had “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the civil power,” and had “quarter[ed] large bodies of armed troops among us ... protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States.”
Note this wasn’t a woke idea even by the standards of the 13th century. The Magna Carta decried the use of the military against citizens in peacetime and declared due process to be the law of the land.
The Magna Carta provides the first recorded acknowledgment of the origins of the Anglo-American tradition against military involvement in civilian affairs with its declaration that “no free man shall be ... imprisoned ... or in any other way destroyed ... except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
Subsequent legislation in the reign of Edward III explained that this precluded punishment by the King except “in due Manner ... or by Process made by Writ ... [or] by Course of the Law,” or as later more simply stated, except “by due Process of the Law.” Three hundred years after the passage of the Edwardian statutes, Lord Coke and other members of Parliament read these due process and law of the land requirements to include a broad prohibition against the use of martial law in peacetime, an interpretation they compelled King Charles I to acknowledge.
The arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan by Kash Patel’s FBI appears to be directly connected to Section 5 of Trump’s illegal executive order, which also makes clear that this is all about enabling discrimination.
Sec. 5. Holding State and Local Officials Accountable. The Attorney General shall pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to enforce the rights of Americans impacted by crime and shall prioritize prosecution of any applicable violations of Federal criminal law with respect to State and local jurisdictions whose officials:
(a) willfully and unlawfully direct the obstruction of criminal law, including by directly and unlawfully prohibiting law enforcement officers from carrying out duties necessary for public safety and law enforcement; or
(b) unlawfully engage in discrimination or civil-rights violations under the guise of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives that restrict law enforcement activity or endanger citizens.
While the first 100 days of Trump’s regime was designed to be shock and awe, the second 100 days will be about clamping down opposition and enacting the retribution MAGA is so thirsty for.
With this order, Trump is attempting to eliminate Congress, the courts, and nearly a millennium of common law to enact a militarized national junta in America that will enforce the edicts of a Mad King. This is a Declaration of Re-Dependence on an authoritarian monarch, and, unless we fight back with everything we have, the end of American democracy as we know it.
Long live a free America. Glory to Ukraine.
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Am I right in understanding that we’re still waiting for Trump to reveal the Hegseth/Noam report about whether there’s a state of emergency on the southern border and a need to trigger the insurrection act? I’ve wondered if Trump is waiting for the latest signalgate shitstorm to calm down a bit…Do you think this exec order relates to that at all? The 2 together seem like they could be highly incendiary
My heart hurts for the USA. Sending love and solidarity
If the judiciary or congress intends to do something, anything, here's a hard deadline for you.
State and local police were one of the last remaining big levers of power. Once Trump admin gets control of state and local police, the game is over. You can't enforce contempt of the court, you can't expect to be able to enforce legislation even if you find the courage and the will to enact it. You're just there. And then you'll be just an Executive Order away from being removed as an institution, in the style of Hitler's 1934 decree eliminating the institution of the presidency of the Weimar Republic after Hindenburg's death. And at that point only unappealing options remain, such as army coup (very unlikely after preemptive purges) or mass civil insurgence.
So Supreme Court, if you're not completely bought and beholden to the cult yet, and Congress, if Republican institutionalists are not too senile to wake up, NOW is the time to act. There will not be another time awarded to you, and you'll all still be the first in line anyway for deportations to concentration camps or... worse.