Does the Posse Comitatus Act Create a Seam of Vulnerability in Our Territorial Waters Hindering U.S. Northern Command's Mission of Protecting the Homeland?
2007
Colon, Frank A.
This paper will focus on the seam of ambiguity that exists between maritime threats that are not specifically national security or criminal law enforcement. This seam is created by the Posse Comitatus Act which forces decision makers to first look to the authority of available forces verses capabilities. If decision makers do not have specific intelligence that a suspect vessel is a threat to national security requiring destructive force then the U.S. Coast Guard will be the service required to respond in our territorial waters. That level of fidelity in intelligence is rare and as such the U.S. Navy will almost always be excluded from interdiction in our territorial waters. With our expansive maritime boarder the U.S. Coast Guard cannot be expected to patrol and interdict alone. The solution is to modify the Posse Comitatus Act to allow the U.S. Navy to fully engage in maritime homeland security in our territorial waters to act as a force multiplier in defense of the homeland.
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