Congresswoman and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said recently that President Trump “in a contra-constitutional way … has sent the National Guard into California. Something is very wrong with this picture.” What is wrong is Ms. Pelosi’s understanding of the Constitution.<\/p>\n
It is regrettably common for people to run around saying things are unconstitutional simply because they disagree with them strongly. The former Speaker should know better.<\/p>\n
The National Guard is part of the militia, as that term is used in the Constitution. Article I, section 8, authorizes Congress to “to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union,” and Congress has done so in 10 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 252 and 253. The Constitution further provides, in Article II, section 2, that the “President shall be Commander in Chief . . . of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.” Use of the militia to enforce federal law goes back to President Washington. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy used the predecessors of the code sections cited above over the objections of state governors. I will have a long post on this soon.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reasonable people can and do disagree on the policies involved. Much of that disagreement is outside CJLF’s scope, and the foundation does not take positions on issues outside its scope. But Ms. Pelosi’s “contra-constitutional” claim is just wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Congresswoman and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said recently that President Trump “in a contra-constitutional way … has sent the National Guard into California. Something is very wrong with this picture.” What is wrong is Ms. Pelosi’s understanding of the Constitution. It is regrettably common for people to run around saying things are unconstitutional simply because they disagree with them strongly. The former Speaker should know better. The National Guard is part of the militia, as that term is used in the Constitution. Article I, section 8, authorizes Congress to “to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union,” and Congress has done so in 10 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 252 and 253. The Constitution further provides, in Article II, section 2, that the “President shall be Commander in Chief . . . of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.” Use of the militia to enforce federal law goes back to President Washington. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy used the predecessors of the code sections cited above over the objections of state governors. I will have a long post on this soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-constitution","category-military"],"yoast_head":"\n