Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks recently provided historical context of the Posse Comitatus Act, the law that regulates when federal troops can intervene in state issues, in the wake of National Guard troops being deployed to Washington, D.C., to the AP.
The law was enacted in 1878 following the post-Civil War era known as Reconstruction. Pro-segregationist representatives in Congress wanted to keep the military from blocking the enforcement of Jim Crow laws that allowed racial segregation.
Banks notes that, “the spirit of the law also has roots going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, when the founders of the United States were scarred by the British monarchy’s absolute military control.”
“We have a tradition in the United States, which is more a norm than a law, that we want law enforcement to be conducted by civilians, not the military,” Banks said.
Banks is the co-author, along with Stephen Dycus, of Soldiers on the Home Front: The Domestic Role of the American Military, which examines the Posse Comitatus Act.