Originally published at: Threatening ‘The Enemy Within’ With Force: Military Ethicists Explain The Danger To American Tradition - TPM – Talking Points Memo
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation. On the campaign trail, former President Donald Trump has declared there are serious threats to the United States. First, he said, there is “the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the…
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Is any Presidential order “official?” Once again, Leonard Leo’s Supreme Court majority has issued an ambiguous ruling, crafted specifically for TCF. It will be most interesting to see if President Biden decides that one of his last official acts will be to have his predecessor interned at Guantanamo. I don’t know expect it to happen, but a man can dream.
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Trump wants to use the Insurrection Act (originally passed in 1792), Sections 251 through 255 in Title 10 of the United States Code. Invoking the Insurrection Act temporarily suspends the Posse Comitatus rule and allows the president at his discretion to deploy the military to assist civilian authorities with law enforcement.
If Trump seizes the White House again after losing the 2024 election, and tries to set himself up as a dictator, let’s hope he gets no help from the military.
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If trump gets the White House, he will find military officers who will obey him.
Hitler found them. Mussolini found them. Every damned dictator has found them.
Most of the German SS officers who headed the killing units were highly educated, even cultured men. Didn’t stop them from slaughtering men, women & kids like so many sheep.
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a July 1, 2024, Supreme Court ruling gave the president criminal immunity for official acts – which almost certainly include giving orders to the military.
The Court really screwed that up. They basically killed honor and replaced it with legalized slavery.
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That MUST be reversed in some way, either by SCOTUS itself of or by legislation.
Immune for prosecution for anything? JeeZus! Who would ever imagine?
Trump, if POTUS, could hold, say, a Wannsee Conference, to name just one possible nightmare.
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That MUST be reversed in some way, either by SCOTUS itself of or by legislation.
Immune for prosecution for anything?
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That immunity is for the President. Does it apply to the staff and military if they follow and commit an illegal act? I thought it was the President who couldn’t be charged for illegal acts ordered as “official” business.
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I expect it will be reversed. Unfortunately, it could be many years before it is.
In the meantime, if President Trump orders a soldier to kill his child to prove his loyalty… perfectly legal. Pundits would probably say, wrong but very effective.
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" Nonpartisanship could become partisan
When faced with a potential order to deploy the U.S. military within the nation’s borders, however, service members may find themselves in a situation where upholding the military’s tradition of staying out of politics could itself appear partisan."
So, the “military’s tradition” is viewed by the authors as not defined by law? What about the exixting laws which have to be waived in order to deploy the military within our borders? I do not find this framing reassuring at all.
What about the military deployment being in response to hostile forces or invasion by other state actors? Apparently the insurrectionists of J6 were not considered hostile by tcf, so what are we talking about here?
Those who refuse to deploy against citizens and residents will assuredly be accused of partisanship; “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats.”. “They’re performing gender transition surgeries in the schools”, etc.
If the Venn Diagram shows overlap between existing law and views also held by members of another political party, that overlap is not “partisan”, that’s the normal nonpartisan tradition and law which have been in effect for centuries regardless of which party held the seat of gov’t. Any abberrant Executive and their administration which attacks the people of our nation or those under the protection of our jurisdiction will be the rogue element, imo.
The fact that tcf and his backers are disinterring a law from 1792 as an excuse to attack certain Americans for partisan purposes tells me all I need to know.