Posse Comitatus Act
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Posse Comitatus Act
The
Posse Comitatus Act is a
United States federal law (
18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20
Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878, by
President Rutherford B. Hayes. The purpose of the act – in concert with the
Insurrection Act of 1807 – is to limit the powers of the
federal government in using
federal military personnel to enforce
domestic policies within the
United States. It was passed as an amendment to an army
appropriation bill following the end of
Reconstruction and was updated in 1956 and 1981.
The act specifically applies only to the
United States Army and, as amended in 1956, the
United States Air Force. Although the act does not explicitly mention the
United States Navy and the
United States Marine Corps, the
Department of the Navy has prescribed regulations that are generally construed to give the act force with respect to those services as well. The act does not prevent the
Army National Guard or the
Air National Guard under
state authority from acting in a
law enforcement capacity within its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state's governor. The
United States Coast Guard, which operates under the
Department of Homeland Security, is not covered by the Posse Comitatus Act either, primarily because although the Coast Guard is an
armed service, it also has both a
maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission.
The title of the act comes from the legal concept of
posse comitatus, the authority under which a county sheriff, or other law officer, conscripts any able-bodied person to assist in keeping the peace.