re: #302 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀

We are at nearly 40 mins with #SecDef in press gaggle - lots more on borderto come. Bottom line from Secretary Mattis - US forces will NOT act in violation of Posse Comitatus pic.twitter.com/vIHxTHYLDj

— Tara Copp

That’s the thing though: Using forces to deter national security threats is not a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, and Trump has already declared asylum seekers to be a national security threat.

Therefore what Mattis says is technically correct and absolutely does nothing to prevent any troops from being used in that way.

Moreover, the Navy is specifically not covered by the Act. If the issue was stronger firepower without violating the Act, they could use the Navy. They are specifically using the Army to weaken or destroy the purpose of the Act.

Of note, the GOP has suspended the act before by law, specifically in 2007 under George W Bush by amending the 1807 Insurrection Act to allow the Armed Forces be used for disaster, epidemic, terrorist attack, or “other condition” as determined by the President.

That section of the Insurrection Act was repealed in 2008, reverting the Act to its previous wording.