NEW YORK — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared martial law in four parts of Ukraine that their country illegally annexed last month, leading some New Yorkers to ask, “Where did we hear that before? What does this mean?”
First, you’ve heard the term used locally, although it’s probably not a good memory. “Martial law” was publicized in New York at the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020. The executive-ordered closure required people to stay home almost exclusively to prevent the spread of the virus, and people were wary of how far away the rules imposed by the government would go. Martial law is the extreme of that.
Essentially a military takeover, martial law allows the military to assume government functions in times of civil unrest. It is usually presented as a temporary measure to stabilize a crisis of some kind – a public health problem, in the case of New York in 2020, and a wartime one, in the case of Russia now – and allows a head of state or of a country to impose extensive restrictions on its people. The goal is to maintain order in times of volatility and to keep the state active.
Putin did not immediately explain the powers his martial law decree would grant, but they could include restrictions on travel and public gatherings, tougher censorship, and broader powers for law enforcement.
Sound familiar?
Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute has a good online manual on the constitutional limits of martial law as it pertains to the United States. Courts have generally found it admissible, with restrictions.
A 2000 Air Force Law Review article, “Imposition of Martial Law in the United States,” imagines a terrifying scenario like the present one: a pandemic breaks out (in this case, smallpox freed by terrorists), overwhelming civil authority and defeated efforts. quarantine, leading to a declaration of martial law.
And martial law, as defined in a famous 1942 Harvard Law Review article, is described like this: “Martial law [en el sentido en que la estamos usando] it is more precisely described as martial government, achieved in a domestic community when military authority carries out government, or at least some of its functions. “
Older New Yorkers may recall an extreme, dramatized version of the idea in Bruce Willis’ 1998 film “The Siege,” in which a series of terrorist attacks in New York City lead to the imposition of martial law. , allowing a general to imprison Muslims on the grounds of Yankee Stadium.
But in practice, it hasn’t been used aggressively at the state level since southern governors invoked it in the 1950s and 1960s to quell racial riots. The chances of this happening again seem remote at the moment.
