The power to call forth the militia, organizing and disciplining them and governing those parts called to federal service is allocated to Congress according to the US Constitution (see Section. 8.
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power ... Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; ) I presume the states have similar powers to call forth the militia for state service. I doubt the militia is empowered to call itself into service. Remember, we are speaking of two kinds of "militia". One militia is the citizens who may do things such as make citizen arrests when they observe crimes. They are the unorganized militia -- the people. The other meaning of militia is used in connection with military service to state or federal governments. In this case people have been called to service and are serving the organized militia. They are under military discipline while they are in that service. USSC in PRESSER v. STATE OF ILLINOIS, 116 U.S. 252 (1886) made pretty clear that no band of people may organize and arm itself and call itself a militia even for such innocent efforts as marching in a parade. And, even the volunteer militia recognized by a state may regulate what that militia may do (i.e., "without the license of the governor thereof"). Of course citizens have power to act together as a group to defend themselves, but they could be in trouble if they act for a prolonged period (past some emergency) without the license of the governor of the state or in support of some government official designated in charge of their discipline. As for what the Minutemen are doing on the border, they appear to be acting as witnesses to crimes and to notify authorities when they do suspect crimes and not at all acting to protect against crimes in some organized way such as making arrests themselves. They can call themselves what ever they want while doing that, the difference in what they are doing and the gangs in Lebanon are fairly clear. And so are the differences between what they did and what the citizens did in Northfield too. I suspect that all the "militia" groups really don't have any organized armed drills unless the group is run by the state for legal reasons. Phil > Philip F. Lee wrote: > > The militia is essentially a passive organization which should operate > > only when called by proper authority or in a dire emergency but still > > under the authority extablished by a government. > > The position stated above is not consistent with the original concept of > militia as provided for in the Constitution. Militia is defense activity, > and only secondarily those engaged in it. Militia may be called up by any > person aware of a threat to which militia needs to respond. The authority is > provided by the threat. It was envisioned that local sheriffs and constables > would also be commanders of militia in their jurisdictions, but the concept > includes situations in which officials are derelict or unlawful themselves. > The traditional militia was to provide a check on abusive officials, and in > the early Republic was the enforcement arm of the law, even when commanders > were elected by the men of their units, which was the common practice, > especially when officials were derelict or adverse to the will of the people. > > The Minuteman Project provides an excellent example of militia performing > according to the intent of the Founders. Federal, state, and local > government has been derelict in defending the border and enforcing the law, > and civilians are responding to the threat by organizing, training, and > equipping themselves, and electing their own commanders. They are willing to > follow officials if those officials are doing their duties, but are not > required to wait for that unlikely event. > > -- Jon > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Our efforts depend on donations from people like you. Directions > for donors are at http://www.constitution.org/whatucando.htm > Constitution Society 7793 Burnet Road #37, Austin, TX 78757 > 512/374-9585 www.constitution.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Get your free digital certificate from http://www.thawte.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- The Art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on. -- Ulysses S. Grant _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Firearmsregprof@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
