The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was a federal law enacted by congress in 1878 to restrict the federal governments from utilizing the Air Force and Army powers in civil law enforcement functions. The law ensures that civilian police agencies are directly responsible for all law enforcement functions in the United States, and the Armed Forces are responsible for fighting American wars abroad. The military can only be used as law enforcement in America if it specifically authorized.
The Posse Comitatus Act was enacted in 1878 to remove federal troops from Southern territories after the Civil War. The US Army troops were stationed in the South during the reconstruction following the Civil War. ”The posse comitatus (from which the term posse derives) is the power or force of the county, and refers to citizens above the age of 15, who may be summoned by a sheriff to enforce the law." The Posse Comitatus Act specifically prohibited the Army from acting in the manner of civilian law enforcement. The other Armed Forces were added to Posse Comitatus under Department of Defense Directives. Department of Defense is overall in charge of all military and has the ability to write instructions and regulations that cover all branches. Violations of the act would be anything considered a law enforcement function such as surveillance of a civilian, search of property, or an arrest. Any person who disregards the act and uses military force can be fined and face confinement for up to two years in prison. The law does not apply to the National Guard because the National Guard is controlled by each state.
The Posse Comitatus act (PCA) applies to active duty military, reservists on active duty, reservists on inactive duty for training, D...
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The Pose Comitatus Act of 1878 was placed in to affect to ensure that military commanders can not forcibly take over the civilian population. The act ensures that each individual State is responsible for maintaining good order and discipline in their jurisdiction. The act is very small and allows the military to assist civilian authorities if the need is needed and wanted. I believe that the Posse Comitatus Act serves a valuable purpose in American Law, but changes could be made in the future to provide a more up to date standard, especially in the realm of terrorism.
Works Cited
1. "Posse Comitatus Act." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2013): 1. Military & Government Collection. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.
2. "Aid Of Civil Authorities and Public Relations." 32 CFR 501.1. 2002.
Dawes Severalty Act (1887). In the past century, with the end of the warfare between the United. States and Indian tribes and nations, the United States of America. continued its efforts to acquire more land for the Indians. About this time the government and the Indian reformers tried to turn Indians.
The Pendleton Civil Service Act classified certain jobs, removed them from the ranks, and set up a Civil Service Commission to oversee a system based on merit and not political stance. The commission draws up the rules governing examinations for those positions that Congress places in the classified civil service.
Since Martin Bryant’s massacre on Port Arthur, the legal system in Australia is amended and reformed gun laws to create a more effective legislation. Gun-related deaths have since been drawn to more efficient attention in Australian psyche, whilst the issue of gun-laws on a global level still remains as a conspiracy in many countries. The massacre left the Australian nation in shock, with a heavily involved attitude on behalf of local and national police, and thousands devastated at the aftermath. The legislation of gun-laws and amendments continues to be controversial, with punishments including Bryant’s being one of popular debate, and the general ownership and use of guns causing conflict within the interrelationship of the legal system and society.
The Alien and Sedition Acts were not merely intended for immigrants who spoke out against the government but more to detain the growth of the Democratic - Republican Party. These four Acts coercively lessoned the likelihood of the party mounting power by eliminating its majority group; soon to be citizens. Many issues led up to the creation of the Acts. This Cause and Effect can be traced all the way back to George Washington's Presidency; a few years after the creation of the Constitutional government after the Articles of Confederation were expulsed.
Over all, A Well Regulated Militia is a book that provided us great details on how was the Second Amendment was influencing gun control early America. Our Founding Fathers made a right decision to create the Second Amendment to give more benefits for American citizens, but in the 21st century, many crimes abused the Second Amendment as a reason for them to break the laws. Congress needs to step up and take action on guns control to stop more tragedies that involves guns in the future like in The Dark Knight Rises movie massacre.
The Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Acts were very advantageous to the South. In both pieces of legislation the south gained things that would aid them in their campaign to expand slavery. The advantages the south included a stronger fugitive slave law, the possibility for slavery to exist in the remaining part of the Mexican Cession, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the eventual plan to build the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The trend for this literature review topic is to discuss the benefits and shortcomings of the Department of Defense and National Guard in regards to Homeland Security. There is some controversy concerning duties that the National Guard can perform in respect to Homeland Defense and Civil Support which will be appraised.
Yanak, Ted, and Pam Cornelison. "War Powers Act." The Great American History Fact-Finder. Dec. 1 1993: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 07 May. 2014.
United States Border Patrol has been around since 1904 enforcing and regulating laws under the immigration and Nationality Act. U.S. border patrol is now under the Department of Homeland Security, which was created as a response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Over the years, their jurisdiction and missions have changed to better protect the safety of nation. Although border patrol is a need for any nation, their extensive acceptations to constitutional laws can often be taken advantage of. The mission of the U.S. border patrol should be to prevent illegal aliens, which are a threat to American society, from reaching their purpose. Frequently, their purpose can be confused or executed in a bias manner.
Article one, Section 8 of the Constitution states Congress has the power “To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years.” This clause gives Congress to rise and maintain an Army as they see fit. This idea goes against what we as Americans just fought for. More importantly this clause gives the federal government massive power over the state level government. As started in Article two, Section two “The President shall be the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” These two clauses combined could very well lead to a government not to different than that of the English Monarch. Lastly the state ran militias can protect their own states and still will be able to collapse into one unified Army if there is a threat to the nation as a whole.
“U.S. Gun Facts, Figures, and the Law.” Gun Policy. Gun Policy. 2. Jun. 2014. Web. 6 June 2015.
In 1798, when Congress passed both the Alien and Sedition Acts, it was very much constitutional. These acts were definitely in the best interest of America. America was a significantly young nation, at the time, and could not afford to create problems caused by foreigners coming to America. They did not have enough national power to sustain order if everyone was attacking the newly created laws, and many of those rebels being citizens from foreign countries, nevertheless.
The military is tasked with the duty and responsibility of protecting the nation from external attacks and managing any attacks that may happen. Over the years, countries across the world have engaged in conflicts originating from differences in policies and invasion of privacy and unfair treatment of citizens in foreign countries. In...
The New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act (SAFE ACT). In the article wrote by Wolf , Caroline and Jamin A. Rosen. explains it was made for public safety by preventing criminals and the dangerous mentally ill from purchasing a gun through the use of background checks (851-878).
Compromise of 1877 African-Americans may sometimes wonder at the contradictory facts about their history presented in many standard history texts. These texts state that blacks were given the right to vote in 1870, yet the same texts will acknowledge that this right did not really exist for African-Americans until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Similarly, the first public accommodation law was passed in 1875, but history shows that it took 91 years before it was acknowledged and African-Americans were allowed to the full benefits of citizenship. It is common knowledge that the American Civil War provided freedom and certain civil rights, including the right to vote, to the African-American population of the nineteenth-century. What is not generally known, and only very rarely acknowledged, is that after freeing the slaves held in the Southeastern portion of the U.S., the federal government abandoned these same African-Americans at the end of the Reconstruction period.