1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

The ongoing militarization of domestic law enforcement operations under the guise of protecting federal property and personnel is a dangerous overreach of executive authority that undermines democratic principles. The expansive "protective power" theory invoked by the Trump regime to justify deploying troops for civilian law enforcement duties appears to be an unconstitutional distortion of the president's obligations under the Take Care Clause. This flawed legal reasoning is being used to sidestep the clear restrictions imposed by the Posse Comitatus Act against using the military for such purposes. The trial over the deployment of National Guard and Marine troops to Los Angeles has exposed the sweeping scope of this policy. Testimony revealed troops assisted in over 170 law enforcement operations conducted by multiple federal agencies, performing security functions like setting up perimeters and blockades, and even detaining civilians on at least two occasions. This far exceeds merely protecting federal property and personnel from imminent threats. Moreover, the justification provided for further troop deployments to Washington D.C. under the same dubious legal premise is transparently political. The regime's claims of needing to address violent crime ring hollow when crime data shows rates are actually declining in the District. This militarized federal intervention appears aimed more at projecting an image of chaos to validate the president's inflammatory rhetoric about Democrat-led cities. Forcefully enforcing the Posse Comitatus Act's limitations is crucial to reining in this administration's authoritarian impulses and upholding the separation of civil and military authority. Explicit legislative action is needed to puncture the regime's false narrative of violence in the streets being used as pretext to further erode constitutional constraints. Failing to do so risks normalizing an imperial presidency unconstrained by the rule of law. The degradation of democratic norms and civil liberties must end.