Most Americans believe that the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of federal troops to enforce the law in the United States . They also believe that the President has to wait until a governor asks for help before sending federal troops to help.

These beliefs are erroneous. They are based on complete misunderstanding of the two major laws that pertain to this issue.

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Forces as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years or both. - United States Code Title 18, Section 1385.

The Posse Comitatus Act does not contain the word "prohibited." The law says nothing about barring the provision of relief or support from or by the federal government. It pertains to the use of the Army or Air Force to execute the laws as a member of a "posse comitatus" formed by a U.S. Attorney, U.S. marshal, a sheriff, law enforcement officer, or other public official or private citizen.

Stripped of the modifiers, the sentence reads:

Whoever uses part of the Army and Air Force.

Note that the offender under this law would not be the Army of Air Force, or members of the Army or Air Force but the person who uses them in violation of the law. This may explain why no person has been convicted of violating the Posse Comitatus Act since it was enacted in 1878.

Whoever willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years or both.

This is almost the complete law. However, Congress included an important qualification in the sentence that is often overlooked by those who prefer an absolute prohibition. The important exception is the following clause that modifies the subject:

Except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.

Congress has on several occasions' enacted laws that allow one person- and one person only -to authorize the Army and Air Force to execute the laws. That person is the President of the United States .

Restated even more clearly, the intent of this law is as follows:

Only the Congress or the President of the United States may authorize the use of the Army and Air Force to execute the laws.

That is what the Posse Comitatus Act means-or at least what it meant when it was enacted in 1878. Unfortunately for the nation, the meaning of the law was completely revised by activist judges in the 1970s. The revised version of the Posse Comitatus Act is what most people are citing when they assert that federal troops are prohibited from enforcing the law in the United States .

Fortunately, the Insurrection Act stands, and it permits the President to use federal troops to enforce the laws either at the request of a governor or on the initiative of the president. The Insurrection Act consists of four statutes enacted at different times for different reasons that, when considered as a whole, provide the power that presidents have used many times as the legal basis for using troops to enforce the law. The four sections of law are as follows:

Title 10, Section 334 was enacted in 1792 as the Calling Forth Act to give President George Washington authority to call forth the militia when in his judgment they were needed to repel invasions, suppress insurrections, or enforce the laws.

Title 10, Section 331 is a combination of two laws. One was enacted in 1795 to correct weaknesses in the Calling Forth Act when it was used to suppress the Whisky Rebellion in 1793. The second law was enacted in 1807 at the request of President Thomas Jefferson to extend presidential authority to call forth the standing army as well at the militia.

Title 10, Section 332 was enacted in 1861 at the request of President Abraham Lincoln to increase presidential authority to use the militia and the regular army to suppress insurrections and enforce the laws.

Title 10, Section 333 was enacted in 1869 at the request of President U. S. Grant to empower him to use federal troops to suppress the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction.

The Insurrection Act empowers the president, either upon his own initiative or at the request of a governor to use federal troops to address a variety of civil disturbances that could be provoked by a major terrorist attack. Sections 332 and 333 make it clear that it is up to the president to determine when and where to use federal troops to enforce the laws.

The truth of the matter is that the Posse Comitatus Act need not be changed. What needs to be changed is the prevalent misconception of its original intent. It was intended to prevent anyone other than the president from using federal troops to execute the laws. But as demonstrated by the Insurrection Act, Posse Comitatus is not necessary for the president to use federal troops, nor does it prevent him from doing so. The President has sufficient authority to do what needs to be done to use federal troops to respond to natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and to maintain law and order. The people, congress, and the administration need to understand that before our next major catastrophe.