I was always interested in social studies, and during my secondary school years in Virginia’s public school system, I registered for as many anthropology, history, political science, psychology and sociology classes as I could fit into my schedule. I remember one of the first days of a politics class I took, our teacher, Mr. Legum, took us outside of our school building and asked us to look around. We all glanced at each other rather puzzled, and then he said, “Yes. Look around. I want you to look at everything around us – the school, the parking lots, the roads that intersect here, the woods across the street – make a list and write down whether you think the federal government, state government, or city government makes the laws that control what happens to all this infrastructure. Who regulates and funds this school, the roads, the woods…”
He motioned sweepingly with his arm and looked around at all of us as we shifted from side to side, gazed at the sky, and giggled. He sighed and said, “OK. Get out your notebooks and do it now.” We shrugged; I sank down onto the sidewalk and began to write. After a few minutes he said, “OK. What do you think?” Most of us agreed that it had to be the federal government; we thought they controlled everything. They controlled public education, they controlled the bussing and de-segregation we had been subjected to, they controlled wildlife management and parks – we all busily agreed that it was the federal government.
Mr. Legum smiled and said, “No. The school and the parking lots are funded by the state. This road is a state road. The woods across the street are part of a state park and protected waterway. All of this is controlled by the state. The state and local governments have most of the control over our daily lives.” I was astounded. I had no idea the federal government technically had so little power in my day-to-day life.
This memory was omnipresent as I began researching this article on the elegance, beauty, and wisdom of the Constitution of the United States. As President Trump continues to order federal national guard troops into our cities and states, I wanted to try to understand what the law of the land said about armed presence, invasion, and/or control by federal troops into American states. Most of us revere our Constitution, notable world-wide as the oldest and longest standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world (Wikipedia, 2/6/26). To my surprise, I was concerned by what I found.
Despite being known as one of the oldest representative democracies in the world, most of our country’s power lies within the executive branch. As a result, federal laws, treaties, and of course the Constitution, supersede state laws. In addition, the Constitution and federal laws have precedence over any state or its laws. Yes, there are safeguards built in, as we saw during the 2000 elections, but the document that has been referred to as “America’s Conscience” awards its most over-reaching power to the President. In addition, the President can’t be fired. Conviction of bribery, treason, or other “high crimes and misdemeanors,” leading to impeachment, is the only way to remove a sitting president. “The State of the Union” and the “Recommendation Clause” allows the president to recommend to Congress “necessary and expedient” national measures, as necessary, and the President is required by Article 4 of the Constitution to protect the states from violence and invasion and to provide “a republican form of government.”
Most of us are aware that one of the hallmarks of our government’s organization, laid out in the first three articles of our Constitution, is the “separation of powers” clause; Congress, the legislative branch; Judiciary, the branch describing the Supreme Court and its lower courts; and of course, the President and their Cabinet. The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments of the Constitution, restricts the powers of the federal government and prioritizes justice and individual liberty.
The “Reconstruction Amendments” include the 13-15th amendments which hone federal authority and outline the procedural processes of government. Civil Rights protections are enlarged and expanded within these three amendments. Contrary to my – and perhaps your assumptions – there is no single amendment within our Constitution that governs federal military deployments on United States soil. The Insurrection Act is the closest tool for American “occupation” by American military units. Allowing a narrow exception to provide for federal intervention, it was used in May, 2023 by then President Joe Biden to send 1500 active-duty members to assist Customs and Border Patrol at the border between the United States and Mexico. And the Secretary of the Army/Air Force is authorized to call up national guard units as may be needed (Congress.GOV Library of Congress; SCOT U.S. Blog). Interestingly, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 forbids active-duty federal troops from performing any domestic law enforcement. The deployment of the National Guard to quell free speech protests is clearly a constitutional violation.
Research indicates that increasingly, President Trump’s approval ratings are declining. Let’s assume, based on “party politics” that most Democrats disapprove of many of the President’s actions. Sam Stevenson reported for Newsweek on February 6, 2026 that most Republicans do too. According to the results of the Quinnipiac Poll covering the period 11/29/25-2/2/26, 56% of Republicans disapprove of Trump’s recent decisions. Specifically, 56% of Republicans disapprove of his handling of the economy; 58% disapprove of his foreign policy tactics; and 59% disapprove of his immigration stance. Given the recent murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, many have decried the administration’s increasingly violent tactics.
Sadly, his hatefulness and racism continue to accompany his deteriorating competence and increasingly outlandish behavior. In early February, the president chose to post an image of former President Barack Obama and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, as apes. The depiction was accompanied by the song “The Lion Sleeps at Night” by the Tokens. On February 6, Newsweek covered the story and reported that Governor Gavin Newsome (D-CA) had publicly denounced the post and released a statement, which in part reads, “Trump just posted a video on Truth Social that includes a racist image of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. There is no bottom.” On Saturday 2/14/26, Former President Barack Obama responded to the racist post during an interview with Brian Tyler Green, saying in part “…there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening…there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for
the office, right?” The response from the White House has been disappointing to say the least.
First, Karoline Leavitt, White House press Secretary, explained that it was a spoof of the Democrats as jungle animals and President Trump as the “king of the jungle.” She called the widespread criticism “fake outrage.” Then, it was shared by a “White House official” that a “staffer” erroneously made the post (Nicholas Kerr, reporting for ABC News, 2/14/2026). The widespread criticism of the video resulted in it being removed. However, the damage had been done and was accompanied by reported concerns regarding President Trump’s declining health this week. He seemed unable to control a “drooping” eye while answering a reporter’s question at a White House Event called “Champion of Coal.” Express. US. correspondents Fernanda Alba, Jack Hobbs, and Michael D. Carroll witnessed what they termed symptoms of sundowning, a common occurrence with Alzheimer’s patients that includes increased confusion, enhanced and often inappropriate emotional expression(s), slurring, mis-using or mis-pronouncing common words, and lack of control over voluntary and involuntary muscular function. As a daughter who watched her mother’s lingering, horrifying, and long-term decline and death attributed to Alzheimer’s Disease, I (and most medical professionals) can assure you that nobody battling this disease can be considered competent.
And now, our ill, aging, incompetent, and hateful commander in chief is suggesting that he would like to invade Iran. White House officials told Reuters that if so, it would be a “sustained, weeks long” operation. Both the Pentagon and the White House responded “No Comment” when Reuters reporters Phil Stewart and Idries Ali inquired into these developments. Such an action would have wide ranging and perhaps disastrous consequences, not just for Iran and the U.S., but globally. I vividly remember the Vietnam, Central/South American, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars and many other combat operations including Somalia, Yemen, and Libya. As a nonviolent activist, I participated in many peace marches protesting these wars from Seattle to New Orleans to Florida. While demonstrations raised pressure, they were largely ineffective, with many of these conflicts either continuing and/or resolved by violent civil war, genocide, and regime changes that rarely achieved lasting peace or democracy.
Meanwhile, Marco Rubio called Europe “our cherished allies and our oldest friends” insisting America would never abandon those countries (Patrick Reevell, Isabella Murray and Ivan Pereira reporting for ABC News 2/14/26). Sadly, many scholars and analysts, me included, would argue that we have already abandoned “Mother Europe,” playing “virtually no role” in resolving either the Ukraine or Gaza conflicts. Talks are scheduled to continue between Iran and the U.S. next Tuesday, February 18, in Geneva.
I adored my high school social studies teacher, Mrs. Felton. I took every class with her I could: Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology. She was an old hippie with long, stringy brown hair, skinny as a rail, and she always wore long tie-died skirts with white tennis shoes. I hung on to her every word. “Culture!” She exclaimed with her slightly “uptown” accent. “Culture! There is no right or wrong. One cannot judge culture; one must try to understand it.” I have thought about her a lot as I grapple with the decisions of our current administration. I am trying to understand our lawmakers who are making unconstitutional choices. I am trying to understand their supporters, their disillusionment, their anger. It is hard. I was raised by a devoutly Catholic mother who preached peace, love, and charity. I remember her lectures as we’d walk our neighborhood, collecting money for the Red Cross, for the Catholic orphanage, for a host of charities that my mother believed would help others. She too taught peace, love, and tolerance, until a disease that no one really understands, Alzheimer’s Disease, killed her. I’m trying hard not to think that our current administration is like the disease that took my mother. It makes you forget who you are. It makes you violent when you’re not. It makes you angry when you have much to be happy about. And it makes you afraid. If this is the malady that plagues our president, I feel horribly for he and his family. If it’s just plain old hate, I feel even more sorry for him.
References, Sources, and Links:
The Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: The Use of the Military to Execute Civilian Law
The Posse Comitatus Act, Explained – Brennan Center for Justice. February 6, 2026
Rubio delivers blunt, conciliatory speech to Western leaders in Munich
Further Reading
Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.
Trump suggests Republicans should nationalize voting. Here’s what to know.
