I consider this issue to be of critical importance to fighting the forward march of MAGA fascism in the US - and worldwide.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/us/politics/supreme-court-national-guard-chicago.html?unlocked_article_code=1._U8.9Ryt.CT1LcsHSOcnt&smid=url-share In a 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court denied the Trump administration's move to send National Guard (reserve) troops to Chicago. This might give hope that the Court has settled the troop-deployment question for Los Angeles, Portland, and other cities. But the decision is narrow, and the Trump administration has other alternatives to get federally-commanded troops on US streets before the 2026 election. 'To federalize the National Guard, the president must determine that he is “unable with the regular forces” to execute U.S. laws. The justices asked whether “regular forces” meant the military or civilian law enforcement.' Trump's Department of Justice argued that "regular forces" meant civilian police, but the US Supreme Court majority read the law as "regular military forces." Trump would therefore need to use regular troops, US Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force or Space Force troops before calling up the National Guard. The bigger question is whether a US President can command troops on US streets based on any reason or any lie, which is the crux of the threat. The "unitary president" legal "theory" has led a number of judges and justices to claim that the President can make decision based on information that the people do not have, and the President need not disclose. Trump's bogus arguments have been accepted by some of the Appeals Court judges who ruled that the NG troop deployments were legal; those judges were in the minority as the case made its way to the Supreme Court, which made this decision using an argument that had not been presented by either side. The US left does not yet have an effective strategy to fight this process. Instead, we can only watch and hope the courts will stop a military takeover in US streets (and argue whether we did enough to help Kamila Harris). The pacifist strategy of urging troops to mutiny has made it from the About Face organization, through the Democratic Party operatives belonging to Indivisible and to a half-dozen Democratic Party Senators who made videos using troops to disobey "illegal orders." They never stated what kind of illegal orders they meant. Mutiny is one of the few US military offenses that has the death penalty. The socialist strategy is to organize all of the troops, and especially their families and not just the few hundred, police-certified soldiers who formed the vanguard of Trump's initial military deployment. That's not happening, and over the past few months, it's become clear to me why and how that might change. Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39865): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39865 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116950047/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
