It seems every federal failure these days becomes an excuse for expanding federal power. As James Bovard writes in the American Conservative, the Orwellian “Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act” grants the President a new power to declare martial law in response to ““natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition”—and of course, what other “condition” that might be was not specified.

This new law discards 200 years of civil protections greatly limiting the use of the military on US soil – limitation which were committed to law in the Insurrection Act of 1807. As usual, virtually nothing critical was heard from our somnolent representatives in Congress. Every US Governor opposed the passage of this Act, and yet it passed the House 398-23 and flew through the Senate by a unanimous consent vote.

As Bovard states:

“Martial law” is a euphemism for military dictatorship. When foreign democracies are overthrown and a junta establishes martial law, Americans usually recognize that a fundamental change has occurred. Perhaps some conservatives believe that the only change when martial law is declared is that people are no longer read their Miranda rights when they are locked away. “Martial law” means obey soldiers’ commands or be shot.

Some Senators did speak out before the bill was passed, and two [Patrick Leahy, (D-VT) and Kit Bond (R-MO)] are currently sponsoring a bill to repeal the changes to the original law that have resulted in these new executive powers. They need our support.