The New York Times interviews Joshua Kastenberg on Election Day and Deployment of the National Guard
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2-2020
Abstract
Federal troops have not been used to guard against election violence since the years after the Civil War when the Army was stationed across the South to put down the Ku Klux Klan and protect Black voters, said Joshua Kastenberg, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and military judge who teaches military law at the University of New Mexico School of Law.
“Presidents have historically been very reluctant to call out the Army. They’ve used the authority briefly and responsibly,” he said. But, he cautioned, there are almost no checks on the president’s power to send in troops. Challenges in the courts are so slow that they are often decided long after an executive order is carried out, he said, and Congress has no standing to challenge what the White House deems an insurrection.
“A president could issue a ridiculous insurrection proclamation or violate the Posse Comitatus Act, and the people would have very little recourse,” he said.
Publication Title
The New York Times
Recommended Citation
Joshua Kastenberg & Dave Phillips,
The New York Times interviews Joshua Kastenberg on Election Day and Deployment of the National Guard,
The New York Times
(2020).
Available at:
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facultyscholarship/811
Comments
Printed edition November 3, 2020, Section A, Page 21