{"id":31157,"date":"2018-11-23T14:54:49","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T14:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/11\/23\/constitutional-questions-emerge-about-expanding-role-of-troops-on-us-soil\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:57:24","slug":"constitutional-questions-emerge-about-expanding-role-of-troops-on-us-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2018\/11\/23\/constitutional-questions-emerge-about-expanding-role-of-troops-on-us-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional questions emerge about expanding role of troops on US soil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hear Defense Secretary James Mattis tell reporters in a huddle that there has been no call for lethal force at the border.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

A new White House directive <\/a>authorizing U.S. troops to engage in some law enforcement activities on American soil, potentially including the lethal use of force<\/a>, is being sharply questioned by security and legal experts, who are raising concerns about both its underlying legality and the way the White House issued the controversial order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new White House memo authorizes Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to order \u201cDepartment of Defense military personnel\u201d to \u201cperform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary to ensure the protection of federal personnel, including a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention and cursory search.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memo also said: “Department of Defense personnel shall not, without further direction from the President, conduct traditional civilian law enforcement activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security and legal experts interviewed by Military Times questioned how the military could conduct what they said were clear law enforcement roles \u2014 especially detention and search \u2014 and not run afoul of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act<\/a>, which explicitly prohibits active-duty military forces from conducting law enforcement activities inside the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like being a \u2018little bit\u2019 pregnant. You can\u2019t be. You can\u2019t engage in law enforcement without engaging in law enforcement. Those are law enforcement functions as they have been defined for hundreds of years in the United States,” said William Banks, author of \u201cSoldiers on the Home Front: The Domestic Role of the American Military,\u201d and the former director of the Institute for National Security and Counter-terrorism at the Syracuse University College of Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\t