Word: comitatus
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...founding fathers had a fear of standing armies," says Stephen Dycus, who teaches national security law at Vermont Law School and co-authored a book on the subject, National Security Law. "Posse Comitatus is one expression of that. We've always had a problem of having the military involved in civil affairs. On the other hand, if we got in a bind, such as a plague released in Chicago, the only way to get out is to have the military involved. They've got the personnel, the training and the experience in use of force that other parts...
...Pentagon insists Posse Comitatus is not going to be an issue because the 20,000 troops will play no role in actual law enforcement. "The first point to make, our department understands and respects the concerns that have been voiced - even under circumstances where some of the concerns are not well based in fact," says Paul McHale, the outgoing assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, who vows transparency about the mission. McHale says he met with the American Civil Liberties Union a few weeks ago to give assurances that the proposals will not infringe on the basic rights of civilians...
More recently, since 9/11, the Bush administration has attempted to stiff-arm the Posse Comitatus law as part of the war on terror. Barely a month after the September 11 terror attacks, on Oct. 23, 2001, then Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo co-wrote a memo regarding "Authority for the Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States." Jay Bybee, then chief of the Office of Legal Counsel, acknowledged in a later memo that the act generally prohibits use of the military for law enforcement purposes unless there's a constitutional or statutory reason...
Historically, Presidents have suspended the Posse Comitatus Act by invoking the Insurrection Act. President Dwight D. Eisenhower did just that in 1957 when segregationists tried to prevent black students from enrolling and attending public school in Little Rock, Ark. John F. Kennedy also used the act in 1962 and 1963 to send troops to enforce desegregation in Mississippi and Alabama. Similarly, George H.W. Bush sent troops to quell the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Assistant Secretary of Defense McHale notes that the troops being trained for disaster response under the new program would not even be the ones called upon...
...Part of the genius of the Insurrection Act is before it can be invoked the President has to make a public declaration that he is doing it," Dycus says. "There is no way the President can use that exception to the Posse Comitatus Act secretly...