That magical time again when the Old Professor drops some history for those that shy away from it.

Recently the president of South Korea imposed martial law stating there was ‘anti-state’ forces at work…..it did not end well he had to rescind the order and now he is facing impeachment proceedings (you know what that is, right?)

Someone was glad that that is not an option here in the land of the free….or is it?

Yes Irene it can happen here….and it has numerous times in the past….

Naturally, and perhaps in light of endlessly rising political divisions within the U.S., events in South Korea have left some Americans wondering if the same could happen on U.S. soil. Acting as both bad news and good news: Yes, it could happen and has already happened 68 times across the United States’ roughly 250-year history. The Brennan Center for Justice has a full breakdown of the causes behind each declaration of martial law, who declared it, who ended it, how long it lasted, whether it happened on the state or federal level, and even if any civilians were tried by military tribunal as a result.

There’s a lot of general confusion regarding the definition of martial law and what it actually entails in terms of powers granted. There are an enormous amount of rules and details in the books regarding U.S. martial law, defined in the journal Law and Order in 1989 as, “the temporary substitution of military authority for civilian rule and is usually invoked in time of war, rebellion, or natural disaster,” per the U.S. Department of Justice. And yet, as an explanatory brief on the Brennan Center for Justice says, martial law has “no established definition.”

Twenty-nine out of 68 times, martial law was declared in response to disputes between workers and employers/industries. Examples include martial law in Pennsylvania in 1877 over a “general strike,” an 1892 miner strike in Idaho turned violent, and the “Colorado labor wars” lasting for more than two months in 1904. Riots were the next most common cause for martial law (11 times), and war the least common (twice). Fifty-two times, it was state governors who enacted martial law on the state level.

A lot of the confusion and complexities of martial law in the U.S. boil down to various divisions of power, like state vs. federal government and civilian law enforcement vs. military intervention. The president is the “commander-in-chief” of the U.S. military and adopts that role if federal-level martial law is declared, and yet the president must be a civilian. Furthermore, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prevents the military from intervening in civilian law enforcement, in general. So what is the military’s role if martial law is invoked, then? The Brennan Center for Justice says that the military usually supports local law, but has sometimes taken over for them, anyway

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1729417/how-many-times-martial-law-declared-united-states/

So could it happen again?

We have elected the perfect person to test the waters with martial law if something arises that he can sell as ‘anti-state’.

I wait and watch for the possibility to arise.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”