Restoring the Statutory State Militia
The Constitution does not leave “the security of a free State” to standing armies and federal agencies alone. It names a third establishment, the Militia of the several States: the able-bodied citizens of each State, organized and governed under State law. #WTPP’s goal is to restore that Militia by statute, State by State, beginning in Texas, and then to join willing States together as the Militias of Multiple States (MOSS).
What the Constitution says
Congress shall have Power… To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia… reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15–16
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Second Amendment
The Framers gave the Militia three missions: to execute the laws, to suppress insurrections and to repel invasions. They reserved to the States the appointment of its officers and the authority to train it. The Militia exists only when a State acts to organize it.
The Militia is not the National Guard
Today’s National Guard is a federally funded reserve component of the U.S. Army and Air Force, and it can be federalized and sent overseas. The Militia of the several States is a separate institution that most States have let lie dormant. Texas maintains the Texas State Guard, but it exists only because Congress allows it: federal law (32 U.S.C. § 109) says that in peacetime a State “may maintain no troops other than those of its National Guard and defense forces” Congress has authorized. The State Guard is a creature of federal permission. The Militia of the several States is not: it comes directly from the Constitution, and restoring it means enrolling the able-bodied citizens of Texas in an organized, trained and lawfully commanded body that answers to Texas.
The scholarship behind this effort: Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr.
Our approach draws on the work of constitutional attorney Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr. He holds four degrees from Harvard (A.B., A.M., Ph.D. and J.D.) and has practiced constitutional law for more than thirty years. In Constitutional “Homeland Security,” Volume I: The Nation in Arms, The Sword and Sovereignty and Thirteen Words, Dr. Vieira argues the following:
- The Militia of the several States is the establishment the Constitution itself provides for homeland security.
- Both Congress and the States have a duty to organize it.
- Each citizen has a duty to take part in it.
- The States can revitalize it through their own statutes, using the colonial and founding-era militia laws as models.
Read his work at constitutionalmilitia.org. Dr. Vieira is cited here for his published scholarship. He is not affiliated with and has not endorsed We The People for President.
Our plan
Phase 1: Texas
We call on the Texas Legislature to pass a Texas Security Bill that establishes a statutory State Militia:
- It enrolls the able-bodied citizens of Texas.
- It serves under the Governor as commander-in-chief of the State’s military forces.
- Its officers are appointed as State law provides.
- It trains according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.
- It is organized by county, in coordination with the elected county sheriff.
Its missions are the constitutional ones: assisting in executing the laws, suppressing insurrection, repelling invasion and responding to disasters and emergencies. It acts only when called out by lawful State authority.
Phase 2: The other States
We will offer the Texas statute as a model that other States can adopt and adapt through their own legislatures, so that every State restores the Militia its own constitution and the U.S. Constitution already contemplate.
Phase 3: MOSS, the Militias of Multiple States
States that have restored their Militias can join in an interstate compact for training standards, mutual aid and common defense. The Emergency Management Assistance Compact, through which States already share Guard and emergency resources, is the model. The Constitution’s Compact Clause (Article I, Section 10) requires the consent of Congress for such agreements, and the MOSS compact will be presented to Congress for that consent.
What the Militia is not
A statutory Militia is not a private army, a vigilante group or a self-appointed body. Its authority comes from the law that creates it. Its officers are lawfully appointed, its members are trained and accountable, and it acts only on lawful orders from State authority. That accountability is what makes it “well regulated,” and it is what we are working to restore.