Just Another Blog
Sunday, March 17, 2002
 
This story from my roommate.

In all, about 1,600 troops will be posted in 12 states to help keep out terrorists, drug smugglers and illegal crossers. While on duty in San Diego County and elsewhere, the troops will be unarmed. Nor can they enforce laws.

I think that it is interesting that the National Guard has a completely different set of legal duties depending upon who calls them into, "action." What happens if one of the guardsmen is asked or ordered my a member of the active military to assist with a search? Is it still illegal? Or does the immediacy of the request change things? These sound like fairly complex legal issues that I can almost assure you no one has addressed with those affected.