Since discovering martial law has been enacted throughout parts of LA that were ravaged by the hurricane and the subsequent flooding, my friends and I have been discussing martial law in American History.
She insists that she never thought she would see the day when martial law was in place in the US. I pointed to the Civil War and Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. She says that the Civil War was so long ago, that it is far removed from our current society and government. Fair enough.
Hawaii is also slightly different (and to this I will agree) because it was a CLEARLY military situation.
Anyway, this is verging into GD territory and I don’t want to go there. I’m just wondering: are the other examples of martial law being used throughout the country? I’m sure there has been, but either google isn’t being helpful or my google-fu is off today.
Surely this isn’t the third time martial law has been used in US history.
This gun site has a very good and seemingly impartial history of the application of martial law by governors and presidents to quell uprisings. There are very few legitimate uses of martial law in that sense.
The application in New Orleans appears to unusual.
Not listed in Exapno Mapcase’s cite are the repeated uses of martial law during the labor unrest (aka the Mine Wars) in West Virginia in the nineteen teens and twenties. This summary from the West Virginia State Archives is a good source for an overview.
I agree that the case of NOLA is unusual, but this may very well be the largest natural disaster affecting an urbanized area in U.S. history, so unusual is to be expected. While IANAL, my understanding of ex parte Milligan is that one of the primary tests SCOTUS set down for when martial law is allowable is whether the courts are in operation.
The decision was in regards to Lincoln’s suspension of habea corpus and thus tends to focus on a state of war, but in New Orleans at the moment I expect that few (if any) courts are in operation.
There was a major labor upheaval in Minnesota in the late 1950s/early 1960s, IIRC, and then-Gov. Orville Freeman (later in JFK’s Cabinet) declared martial law. No blood shed, I think.
In June of '81 the town of Thornton, CO (nothern suburb of Denver) was hit by several tornados. Martial law was in effect for a few days afterward, allowing the residents to collect and secure thier belongings.
Though my parents house was not damaged, it was in the “closed” area, and I had to show ID with my address at a checkpoint manned by Colorado National Gaurd Troops in order to get home at night. Speaking as one effected, I can say that this “felt” reasonable and not oppressive. There was a darned good reason for it, and we knew it would soon pass.
I can’t confirm this, but one of the interviews I watched yesterday, from a Louisiana source, stated that it was the equivalent of martial law in place, as specified under Louisiana law, but not true martial law.