At 08:45 AM 11/04/2001 -1000, Reese wrote:
At the moment, it's National Guard, there is a long precedent for use of Nat.Guard troops for civil things. So long as they do not bring in regular active duty military, in violation of the posse comitatus act.
As a recent article on Posse Comitatus pointed out, P.C. is just a law, not a Constitutional requirement, so it can be changed any time the politicians feel like it, and since the War On Drugs militarization, it's basically become a requirement that if the Law Enforcers want military assistance, they have to fill out the right forms in triplicate, but it's just a procedural separation, not a church-and-state kind of thing.
The Patriot Act still amazes me. What were those congresscritters thinking? They weren't, just reacting blindly by the looks of things.
The correct punctuation is "What, were those congresscritters <i>thinking</i>?". Gotta get those commas in the right place...