AUGUSTA, Maine (March 21, 2023) – Yesterday, a Maine committee held a hearing on a bill that would require the governor to stop unconstitutional foreign combat deployments of the state’s National Guard troops. Passage into law would take a big step toward restoring the founders’ framework for a state-federal balance under the Constitution.
A coalition of 7 Republicans and 2 Democrats led by Sen. Eric Brakey (R) introduced Senate Bill 1054 (LD1054) on Mar. 7. Titled the Defend the Guard Act, under the proposed law, the Maine governor could not release the state’s National Guard units into “active duty combat” unless Congress has “passed an official declaration of war or taken official action pursuant to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15 of the United States Constitution.”
Under the law, “active duty combat” would be defined as any of the following actions.
- Participation in an armed conflict;
- Performance of a hazardous service relating to an armed conflict in a foreign state; or
- Performance of a duty through an instrumentality of war
“Official declaration of war” is defined as “an official declaration of war made by the United States Congress pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution.”
On March 20, the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs held a hearing on LD1054. A group of supporters organized by Diego Rivera of Bring Our Troops Home testified in favor of the bill. Supporters covered a wide range of topics, from constitutional and legal issues to the cost of endless, undeclared wars.
“We put forth a phenomenal show of expertise, concrete arguments, and public strength,” Bring Our Troops Home said in a tweet.
The hearing occurred on the 20th Anniversary of the second invasion of Iraq. Scott Horton summed it up for the committee.
“This war [Iraq] would not have happened if Congress had insisted on its constitutional authority to declare war.”
Matthew Hoh, associate director at the Eisenhower Media Network asked committee members whether they could justify to the Maine public their National Guardsmen being killed in Syria while guarding oil wells for obscure reasons with no congressional debate or vote.
Unsurprisingly, Major General Douglas Farnham, adjutant general of the Maine National Guard testified in opposition to the bill. Bring Our Troops Home asked a poignant question.
“Why do adjutant generals serve the interests of Washington DC instead of the U.S. Constitution?”
Former Maine State Rep. Ken Fredette made one of the more absurd arguments in opposition to Defend the Guard, saying it “isn’t relevant” in 2023. Apparently, Fredette thinks the Constitution has an expiration date.
IN PRACTICE
National Guard troops have played significant roles in all modern overseas conflicts, with over 650,000 deployed since 2001. Military.com reports that “Guard and Reserve units made up about 45 percent of the total force sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received about 18.4 percent of the casualties.” More specifically, Maine National Guard units have participated in missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and elsewhere.
Since none of these missions have been accompanied by a Constitutional declaration of war, nor were they in pursuance of any of the three conditions set forth in Article 1 Sec. 8, the Defend the Guard Act would have prohibited those deployments.
BACKGROUND
Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16 make up the “militia clauses” of the Constitution. Clause 16 authorizes Congress to “provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia.” Through the Dick Act of 1903, Congress organized the militia into today’s National Guard, limiting the part of the militia that could be called into federal service rather than the “entire body of people,” which makes up the totality of the “militia.” Thus, today’s National Guard is governed by the “militia clauses” of the Constitution, and this view is confirmed by the National Guard itself.
Clause 15 delegates to Congress the power to provide for “calling forth the militia” in three situations only: 1) to execute the laws of the union, 2) to suppress insurrections, and 3) to repel invasions.
During state ratifying conventions, proponents of the Constitution, including James Madison and Edmund Randolph, repeatedly assured the people that this power to call forth the militia into federal service would be limited to those very specific situations, and not for general purposes, like helping victims of a disease outbreak or engaging in “kinetic military actions.”
RETURNING TO THE CONSTITUTION
The founding generation was careful to ensure the president wouldn’t have the power to drag the United States into endless wars. James Madison made this clear in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.
The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.
Congress has abrogated its responsibility and allowed the president to exercise almost complete discretion when it comes to war. The passage of Defend the Guard legislation would pressure Congress to do its constitutional duty.
West Virginia Rep. Pat McGeehan served as an Air Force intelligence officer in Afghanistan and has sponsored similar legislation in his state.
“For decades, the power of war has long been abused by this supreme executive, and unfortunately our men and women in uniform have been sent off into harm’s way over and over,” he said. “If the U.S. Congress is unwilling to reclaim its constitutional obligation, then the states themselves must act to correct the erosion of constitutional law.”
Passage of Defend the Guard would also force the federal government to only use the Guard for the three expressly-delegated purposes in the Constitution, and at other times to remain where the Guard belongs, at home, supporting and protecting their home state.
While getting this bill passed won’t be easy and will face fierce opposition from the establishment, it certainly is, as Daniel Webster once noted, “one of the reasons state governments even exist.”
Webster made this observation in an 1814 speech on the floor of Congress where he urged actions similar to the Maine Defend the Guard Act. He said, “The operation of measures thus unconstitutional and illegal ought to be prevented by a resort to other measures which are both constitutional and legal. It will be the solemn duty of the State governments to protect their own authority over their own militia, and to interpose between their citizens and arbitrary power. These are among the objects for which the State governments exist.”
WHAT’S NEXT
LD1054 must be brought up for a vote in the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee and pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.
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