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They were released from detention after a week. On the morning of Sept. Unlike the previous mornings, I was not able to read the first editions of national newspapers that day. When I arrived in Novaliches 45 minutes later, I found many people wondering why there were no newspapers in their favorite newsstands and their radio and TV sets were silent. One newspaper dealer told me that the first copies of newspapers that arrived for him were confiscated by soldiers. Although I already knew the reason, I preferred to proceed home, sleep and wait until President Marcos announced officially the effectivity of martial law in the evening of the same day.
Copyright Philippine News Agency. Privacy Policy Terms of Use. Toggle navigation GOV. Andrew Jackson led a small army in the defense of New Orleans against a much larger invading British force. As part of his defensive preparations, Jackson imposed martial law on the city. He censored the press, enforced a curfew, and detained numerous civilians without charge.
Moreover, he continued military rule for more than two months after his famous victory at the Battle of New Orleans had ended any real threat from the British. Jackson argued that his actions were justified because the government in New Orleans had ceased to function as a result of the impending British attack, leaving the military as the only body able to protect the city. This was a novel argument, and it did little to explain why he kept the city under martial law for so long.
The founding generation had been deeply suspicious of military power. Duncan et al. Syndics, 1 Harr. Similarly, acting Secretary of War Alexander Dallas explained in a letter to Jackson that martial law had no legal existence in the United States outside of the Articles of War, the predecessor to the modern Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Franklin Jameson, eds. Overall, the consensus in was that martial law was simply another term for military law, and that military jurisdiction could extend no further than the armed forces themselves. Jackson paid the fine, and for the next 27 years, nothing more came of the incident. However, in the early s, the now-aging former president orchestrated a campaign in Congress to refund him the cost of the fine, plus interest.
The ensuing congressional refund debates marked the beginning of a shift in how Americans understood martial law. He got exactly what he wanted. In , after efforts to reform this system had been rebuffed for years, a large group of Rhode Islanders led by Thomas Dorr organized its own constitutional convention, adopted a new constitution, held elections, and declared itself the true government of Rhode Island. When Dorr rallied his supporters to assert their authority by force, the Rhode Island General Assembly declared martial law and called out the state militia to suppress the rebellion.
In , the U. By endorsing the constitutionality of martial law, the Supreme Court finished what Congress had started with the refund bill. The Luther decision makes clear that martial law exists as an emergency power that can be invoked in the United States, at least by state legislatures. But Luther also leaves many questions unanswered. It does not explain the legal basis for martial law, its scope, when it may be declared, or who is authorized to declare it.
Indeed, the Supreme Court has never directly held, in Luther or any subsequent case, that the federal government has the power to impose martial law. It assumed the same in another case, but only for the purpose of deciding a narrower legal question.
Neither of those decisions conclusively affirms that a federal martial law power exists. Over time, however, consistency of practice has papered over gaps in the legal theory. The United States made extensive use of martial law during the Civil War, imposing it on border states like Missouri and Kentucky where U.
The Confederacy, too, relied on it heavily. Neely Jr. The practice did not end with the war: in the 90 years between the start of the Civil War and the end of World War II, martial law was declared at least 60 times. What had been manifestly unconstitutional in the eyes of the Louisiana Supreme Court in had become a relatively ordinary part of American life by the end of the 19th century.
States — and state governors in particular — have declared martial law far more often than the federal government. However, no state legislature has done so since the Rhode Island General Assembly in Many cases involved the use of the military to reinforce local police.
In other cases, however, troops effectively replaced the police, and in some instances, they were used to impose the will of state or local officials rather than to enforce the law. State officials have sometimes declared martial law in response to violent civil unrest or natural disasters, such as the Akron Riot of or the Galveston hurricane. Far more often, however, they have used martial law to break labor strikes on behalf of business interests.
For example, in September , at the request of mine owners, Colorado Governor James Peabody declared martial law in Cripple Creek and Telluride to break a peaceful strike by the Western Federation of Miners. The Colorado National Guard conducted mass arrests of striking workers and detained them in open-air bull pens. Rivers, 31 F. Misuses of martial law were not confined to Georgia.
At the climax of the conflict, Sterling imposed martial law on several counties — despite the total absence of violence or threats of violence — and deployed the Texas National Guard to enforce the regulation.
He declared that the federal courts had no power to review his decision. It ordered Texas to stop using the military or any other means to enforce the regulation.
The federal government has used martial law far less frequently than the states, imposing it only a few times since the end of Reconstruction. Generals have declared it more often than the president, such as in , when U. Army Gen. Francis C. Marshall imposed martial law on Lexington, Kentucky, in order to suppress a lynch mob attempting to storm the courthouse. Most recently, the federal government declared martial law in Hawaii after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in , which initiated three years of absolute military rule in the islands.
As abruptly as it took hold in the mid th century, martial law disappeared from American life after World War II. The federal government has not declared martial law since it restored civilian rule to Hawaii in At the state level, martial law was last declared in , when Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes imposed it on the city of Cambridge for more than a year in response to clashes between racial justice advocates and segregationists.
But even if the power to declare martial law has not been used in decades, it still exists in the case law and in the record books — and it remains poorly understood. The Court has never explained the legal basis for martial law.
It has implied that the federal government can declare it but has never said so conclusively. When discussing the possibility of a federal martial law power, the Court has never clearly indicated whether the president could unilaterally declare martial law or if Congress would first need to authorize it.
Insofar as the Supreme Court has said anything on these questions, its statements have been inconsistent. Diekelman, 92 U. Note that both the portion of Luther that Chief Justice Stone cites and the rest of his opinion directly contradict his own opening proposition.
During World War II, the Court assumed without deciding that Congress could authorize a federal declaration of martial law but did not make clear whether that authorization was required.
In contrast, in a much earlier but influential concurring opinion, Chief Justice Salmon Chase did conclude that federal martial law exists and that it must be authorized by Congress. It is also old: even the most recent Supreme Court decision on martial law — Duncan v. Kahanamoku , decided in — predates many significant developments in U. Sawyer, U. Ohio, U. United States, U. Connecticut, U. Arizona, U. Rumsfeld, U. Bush, U. The precedents thus provide little help in determining the legal basis for martial law — or, assuming that federal martial law is even permissible, whether its use is controlled by Congress or the president.
Texas, U. Regan, U. Consider, for example, if the president were to declare martial law over the U. In that hypothetical scenario, a federal court would likely apply Youngstown to decide whether the president had exceeded executive authority.
Under Youngstown , the courts show varying degrees of deference to presidential action, depending on whether the president is acting in accordance with or contrary to the will of Congress.
The court will uphold the action unless the federal government, as a whole, lacks the power to act. These actions are impermissible unless Congress has overstepped its own powers. This language acknowledges the possibility that martial law might exist as an emergency power, despite the lack of any express provision for it in the Constitution.
It does not, however, suggest where that power lies, and certainly does not indicate that it belongs solely to the executive branch.
Nor does it render the three-zone test inapplicable in the context of martial law. We start with what Congress has said: Congress has legislated so extensively with respect to the domestic use of the military — through, for example, the Posse Comitatus Act, the Insurrection Act, the Stafford Act, the Non Detention Act, and various other provisions within Title 10 of the U.
Furthermore, the Posse Comitatus Act creates a general rule that it is unlawful for federal military forces to engage in civilian law enforcement activities — even if they are merely supplementing rather than supplanting civilian authorities — except when doing so is expressly authorized by Congress.
The Posse Comitatus Act nominally allows for constitutional exceptions to its general rule, but none exists. As it is generally understood, martial law necessarily involves military participation in civilian law enforcement.
While there are a number of statutory exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act, none of them authorizes the president to declare martial law, as part III of this report explains. Barreme, 6 U. In other words, when Congress and the president disagree, Congress wins. The critical question, then, is how the Constitution allocates the powers related to domestic deployment of the military.
The balance of power established by these provisions decisively favors Congress over the president. Instead, it grants authority to the federal government as a whole. Furthermore, it only allows unilateral federal action in the case of invasion. Lastly, the Commander in Chief Clause would not enable the president to unilaterally declare martial law in disregard of the Posse Comitatus Act and other statutes that regulate the domestic use of the military.
To start, the Commander in Chief Clause is not a source of domestic regulatory authority for the president. In domestic affairs, both generally and with respect to the role of the military, the Constitution envisions Congress as the branch in control.
If a foreign enemy launches a sudden attack inside the United States, it is generally understood that the president may act to repel that attack, even if Congress has not given its blessing. But the former power is quite limited, and the latter relies on prior congressional authorization.
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