In your article on martial law, you stated that “Federal laws such as the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act essentially forbid the military from exercising civilian police power unless specifically authorized by Congress or the President.” I would just like to point out that the military exercises civilian police power every day. I refer you to 14USC89. This section give the U.S. Coast Guard the power to enforce civil laws on U.S. waters (territorial seas, rivers, lakes). It even gives power to apprehend escaping suspects on land. The USCG is, indeed, an Armed Force of the United States just like the Army, Marines, and Navy (refer to 14USC1). Also, I am under the impression that during the Hurricane Katrina crisis, the only members of the military aside from the National Guard allowed to carry loaded weapons was the USCG.
Please let me know if you make any more postings about this topic.
“Military” has more than one meaning. In the very strictest sense of the word, even the Navy and Air Force aren’t military; only the Army (and perhaps the Marines) are. The US Coast Guard, which was formed in 1915 by the union of the Life-Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service (I know you know that, but not everyone does) has always been as much a law-enforcement as a military service, from the very nature of its mission, and it is not included in the Posse Comitatus Act.
In fact, it appears that the Act doesn’t even strictly apply to the Navy and the Marines, although it is the official policy of the Department of Defense to act as though it does. (The real purpose of the Act, by the way, was not advance civil rights; on the contrary, it was passed to stop the Army from enforcing civil-rights laws in the South, as part of the corrupt quid-pro-quo over the dirty election of 1876.)