Thread by @MiekeEoyang

Um, what?

Also, I thought we were drawing down this mission and it would be over in three and a half weeks.

https://twitter.com/AaronMehta/status/1065262168885653507

So late Tuesday, John Kelly, WH Chief of Staff, signed out a cabinet order allowing troops to perform law enforcement functions at the border AND to use lethal force.

This may run afoul of long standing Civil War era prohibitions on the use of the military domestically. 1/

For a more detailed discussion of the history of using US troops domestically, I recommend this #BombshellWotR episode: warontherocks.com/2018/11/bombsh…

But what strikes me really problematic is that *Kelly* signed out the order. 2/

Kelly is *not* in the chain of command for the military. He is an advisor to the President, but not a Constitutional officer.

Given the statutory prohibitions under Posse Comitatus against doing exactly this, you'd want some legal guidance. 3/

Typically guidance of this nature would come from the Pentagon General Counsel or DOJ's OLC. When it doesn't come from these places, ask questions about whether someone is politicizing the process. 4/

Remember, the famous incident at the hospital where Ashcroft/Comey refused to bend over surveillance and WH Counsel Alberto Gonzales was the one providing legal guidance? It almost led to mass resignations from DOJ. 5/

But having Kelly, not even the WH Counsel (btw, who's the acting on *that*), sign the order, is even worse.
Someone should be asking if everyone in the legal shop at WH, DOJ and DOD refused to sign off on this mission, which is why Kelly is signing. 6/

Or, if Kelly took it upon himself to sign without getting advice of counsel, we are in a whole different world of lack of rule of law.

This is like Al Haig shouting, "I'm in charge!" after Reagan was shot. There's a chain of command. It's in law. Kelly's order is invalid. /end.