Word: martially
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...children of the ACLU) still fondly imagine that under crisis conditions the Constitution continues to define and limit acceptable law enforcement procedures. They believe that the Bill of Rights-at least on paper-can somehow forbid the police state. In fact, ever since Abraham Lincoln saddled the country with martial law in 1861, the courts have set precious few constitutional limits on riot control and have dumbly excused almost all the emergency powers of government...
Federal statutes, for example, which direct U.S. military battalions to assist local police, blend almost imperceptibly into a pattern of martial law. By act of Congress, the federal government might have declared martial law this week in the District of Columbia. But why bother? The President could have more easily have announced a 24-hour curfew that would almost void every safeguard in the Bill of Rights. Such a momentous step requires no statutory authority and needs no legal warrant other than the President's good faith. It would be possible to challenge this catch-all power only...
...ambiguously defined crises. It is less clear what federal statute has allowed the Administration to censor news from Indochina, but the American press has so far graciously ceded this legal right. But once again, why bother with statutes, anyway? Since the Constitution conveniently passes over the subject of martial law, the President can indeed claim considerable authority inherent in his office as commander-in-chief. Not only can he call out federal troops at will, but he can also expropriate civilian property. Lincoln himself almost supplanted the courts during the Civil War. Nor have the courts been eager to second...
...would be wrong to suppose that the concept of martial law has a positive content with a prescribed set of rules. Martial law is just the right to use soldiers, and the right to use soldiers implies the right to use them as if in time of war. Even in a presumably civil context, the National Guard at Kent State had the legal right to engage in a limited state of war. State governors can justify any expedient tactic directly related to the quelling of disorder, and it makes no difference whether they be reactionaries or politically vulnerable green-horns...
...APRIL 12, the Army granted Font's request for elective discharge. As a consequence, the court-martial charges against him will be dropped. Nevertheless, the Army is obligated to investigate his charges against Seaman. Koster, Alexander and Ciccolella...