CIR, Gaziano Statement on Secretary Noem’s Remarks on Federal Purpose

Todd Gaziano, President of the Center for Individual Rights, issued the following statement:

Appearing in Los Angeles yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said of the national government’s military and law enforcement presence:

We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.

Secretary Noem should retract this statement.

Whether federalizing California’s National Guard and deploying marine troops is necessary or appropriate to protect federal officers and functions is also being debated, but Secretary Noem is dead wrong to suggest that there is any ground or authority in our federalist system of government for national forces to “liberate” Los Angeles or California residents from the leaders they have duly elected.

The nation’s founding generation universally agreed that the protection of individual liberty depended on a vibrant dual sovereignty—even if some of the Framers feared that the national government was not sufficiently limited and might eventually constrain the legitimate authority of state governments, which would threaten all citizens.

Politicians often speak in a careless manner and use hyperbole that they later regret. In this instance, it is important that the DHS Secretary, who directs thousands of federal law enforcement agents, walk back the statement she made yesterday—lest it provide further support to the court challenge brought by California officials to the federal deployment.