Coronavirus Response: No Martial Law in America

Amid the panic of the COVID-19 pandemic, with large swaths of the country stuck at home, the economy paralyzed, and state elections postponed, Yale University forensic psychologist Bandy Lee ominously suggested on Twitter that President Donald Trump would use the opportunity to “impose martial law.” Newsweek began publishing stories with fear-inducing titles such as “Inside the Military’s Top Secret Plan If Coronavirus Cripples the Government” and “Inside the U.S. Military’s Plans to Stop ‘Civil Disturbances.’” With thousands of members of the National Guard deployed at the state level and U.S. Navy hospital ships entering domestic waters, Vice President Mike Pence felt compelled to state that, “I want it to be understood that this is not martial law.” Yet The Associated Press acknowledged that “rumors of martial law fly despite reassurances.”

American history and the strength of our system of checks and balances should be enough to dispel such rumors. While fears of martial law turning into dictatorship have a long and deep history in America, so too does the use of the American military to help alleviate domestic crises of the sort we’re currently facing — and the latter has yet to lead to the realization of the former.

CS

About the Author

Craig Bruce Smith

Craig Bruce Smith is a historian and the author of American Honor: The Creation of the Nation's Ideals during the Revolutionary Era. All of the views expressed above are his and his alone.

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Amid the panic of the COVID-19 pandemic, with large swaths of the country stuck at home, the economy paralyzed, and state elections postponed, Yale University forensic psychologist Bandy Lee ominously suggested on Twitter that President Donald Trump would use the opportunity to “impose martial law.” Newsweek began publishing stories with fear-inducing titles such as “Inside the Military’s Top Secret Plan If Coronavirus Cripples the Government” and “Inside the U.S. Military’s Plans to Stop ‘Civil Disturbances.’” With thousands of members of the National Guard deployed at the state level and U.S. Navy hospital ships entering domestic waters, Vice President Mike Pence felt compelled to state that, “I want it to be understood that this is not martial law.” Yet The Associated Press acknowledged that “rumors of martial law fly despite reassurances.”

American history and the strength of our system of checks and balances should be enough to dispel such rumors. While fears of martial law turning into dictatorship have a long and deep history in America, so too does the use of the American military to help alleviate domestic crises of the sort we’re currently facing — and the latter has yet to lead to the realization of the former.