Rep. Adam Smith fears that Trump will use the military as his personal police force

Los Angeles Protests: What Powers Does the Army Have to Send to Los Angeles?” The Postulate of the Presidential Memorandum

“As protests continue and potentially expand over the coming days,” Mirasola said, “I worry that there is going to be political pressure to move beyond the limited ambit of what’s included in the protective power.”

In fact, the memorandum also says, “The Secretary of Defense shall consult with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security prior to withdrawing any personnel from any location to which they are sent.”

Mirasola believes that the presidential memo is broad and doesn’t seem limited to LA. In fact, “Los Angeles” is not explicitly stated in the memo’s text and the secretary of defense is given wide latitude to issue military protective activities.

Mirasola warned of an overstepping of the legal theory that was at the basis of the deployment in LA if the national guard moved meaningfully beyond this limited role.

In the past, this provision has “been used along with the Insurrection Act,” Goitein said. If it gets there, the courts would wonder if it could provide substantive authority to do things that President Trump is doing.

The courts have not been given the chance to decide if the military can do the law enforcement work in a situation like that in Los Angeles.

Generally, federal troops are prohibited from using military force against civilians in normal law enforcement under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, according to Goitein.

Source: What powers does Trump have to send troops to cities — even if they don’t want them

The U.S. National Guard and the Los Angeles Unrest: President Donald Trump’s Charge Against the Insurrection Act Without a State Request

Goitein noted this is not a new idea and has been put forward by the executive branch for many decades — including during Trump’s first administration.

The Los Angeles unrest is not similar to other recent situations, nor is it close to the level of a’rebellion’, which is why Trump’s move is illegal.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 100 people last weekend in LA, after launching operations a week ago. There were protests in the city and surrounding areas. Law enforcement has responded by shooting nonlethal, but dangerous, rubber bullets and pepper spray at protesters and journalists.

It is the first time since 1965 that a president called National Guard troops to respond to civil unrest without a governor’s official request for assistance, according to Elizabeth Goitein, the senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program.

Additionally, on Monday, a defense official confirmed to NPR that 700 Marines based out of Twentynine Palms, Calif., have been mobilized for LA and are expected to operate in a “support role” and perform the same duties as the National Guard.

The president of the United States has the power to quell unrest. And how is the Trump administration bucking tradition and legal precedent in this situation?

The act hasn’t been used by the White House in Los Angeles, despite the fact that Trump and his allies referred to the protesters as “insurrectionists.” On Sunday,Trump said he hadn’t seen the basis of using the Insurrection Act, though he left the possibility of doing that in the future.

She said that it hasn’t been used since 1992 without a state request. The president used it in the summer of 2002 to quell rioting in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted police officers in the videotaped beating of a black man.

The provision is contained in Title 10 of the U.S. Code on armed services. It allows the president to send federal troops to take on a rebellion against the U.S. government.

Newsom’s office said the president exceeded his “Title 10 authority, not only because the takeover occurred without the consent or input of the Governor, as federal law requires, but also because it was unwarranted.”

During the January 6th ‘Vicious Mob Attack’ on the Capitol Hill, the President and the Commission on Immigration Enforcement in the United States

The administration says that the deployment is to protect federal property and immigration detention facilities from “violent mobs” and ensure the safety of federal immigration officers and agents.

The president is justifying calling the military to LA by suggesting an implied authority in the constitution according to Christopher Mirasola, an assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

This implied constitutional authority, called the protective power, is a debated theory of presidential power that says the president holds inherent constitutional authority to use the military to protect federal functions, properties and persons, Mirasola said.

The man isMichel Martin. You are both a lawyer and a military person, so do you think the president is acting legally in calling up the military?

Smith said that the court should rule on whether the president is abusing his emergency power again. This is not an emergency as defined in the statute. It is not possible to say ‘well in case of an emergency’ and then allow the president to define the emergency as he pleases. He should not be allowed to bring in those troops. The president should de-escalate and the protesters should de-escalate as well.

“President Trump wants this confrontation partially because he wants to emphasize the issue of immigration enforcement,” Smith told Morning Edition. “But more, I fear, because he wants to politicize the U.S. military and legitimize using it as a law enforcement tool, which is incredibly dangerous.”

Martin: I can imagine that it is somewhat galling to someone like yourself who was trapped on Capitol Hill during the January 6th mob attack on the Capitol, when President Trump took many hours to condemn the violence or call for reinforcements for the law enforcement officers who are trying to hold the Capitol and protect people like yourself then. The scenes in L.A. were described as an anarchy and true chaos by your Democratic senator, John Fetterman. And he said that Democrats lose the moral high ground when members refuse to condemn the violence from protesters. What do you say to that?

Smith: Absolutely the first thing. I mean, we had an actual insurrection on January 6th here at the Capitol. People were actually trying to stop the election of a president. They were threatening to kill elected officials, including Vice President Pence. That was an actual insurrection that the president chose to ignore. And to this day, he has pardoned all of the people involved and downplayed that event. That is not acceptable.

Top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith said he fears President Trump wants to use the U.S. military as his “personal police force.”