norseamd
Lifer
- Dec 13, 2013
- 13,990
- 180
- 106
The Act only specifically applies to the United States Army and, as amended in 1956, the United States Air Force. While 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 apply to the Army National Guard and 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.
It applies to any National Guard that have been nationalized. Which automatically happens if they are mobilized by the president. If they are mobilized by their respective governors, then they are not nationalized. The president has authority over the governors when it comes to the National Guard, so even if the governors call up their guard on their own, the president can later nationalize the National Guard. However that does not mean that laws have authority over the US Constitution, nor does it mean that laws should never be broken or ignored if it means doing the right thing.