The current role of what is the 'organized militia' seems clear, but the 'unorganized militia' seems to be kind of dead skunk.
http://www.adl.org/mwd/faq3.asp#3.4
13.26 What are the two major pieces of federal legislation concerning the militia after the ratification of the Constitution?
A. The 1792 Uniform Militia Act created a militia system that was very decentralized with every able bodied free male citizen required to do militia duty.
The 1903 **** Act recognized that compulsory militia service no longer existed. The organized militia, now called the National Guard, came under much greater federal control and received much higher federal funding.
3.50 When did the term "unorganized militia" originate?
A. The term "unorganized" did not begin to emerge until the 1830s and 1840s, when a massive wave of opposition destroyed the compulsory militia system. Nobody wanted to serve in the militia. State governors and legislators wanted to be able to accommodate this desire, but they were bound by the 1792 Uniform Militia Act, which stated that every white male aged 18-45 would be in the militia.
However, the 1792 Uniform Militia Act explicitly allowed the states to determine who was exempt from militia service. So states divided their militias into two sections, the "organized" militia and the "unorganized" militia. In this way, the letter, though not the spirit, of the 1792 law could be complied with. However, only the "organized" militia would have responsibilities. These people would be volunteers, people who actually wanted to perform militia service; they gradually evolved into the National Guard. These people would have uniforms, guns, and would drill, review and encamp.
The other people were the people who did NOT want to be in the militia. Accordingly, members of the "unorganized" militia were NOT supposed to perform any duty or carry any weapons or have any responsibilities. All that would remain was the nominal authority of the state over them for military manpower purposes. This group of people had no militia responsibilities at all (in some areas they had to register, like for the draft today). In this way states could flaunt the spirit of the 1792 Uniform Militia Act, while nominally keeping to the letter of it.
The term "unorganized militia" was kept in use in subsequent decades as a statutory "reminder" that the state could still obligate its citizens to perform military duty, should it ever want them to. Eventually, U.S. law in the early twentieth century picked up this same usage for the same reason: by creating the "unorganized militia," the United States could guarantee usage of this manpower for military purposes, should the (remote) need ever arise.
But being in the "unorganized militia" conveys to you no rights, only the possibility of responsibilities. All it means is that you belong to that class of the militia which has no responsibilities. Being in the militia allows you to do not a single thing, because only the state and federal governments can create (working together) active militia systems. To date, their interest in doing so has largely concentrated on the National Guard.
Again, let me emphasize that there is not a single right guaranteed to you by virtue of your being in the militia. Here I am excepting the right to keep and bear arms, not to necessarily agree or disagree with any particular interpretation of the Second Amendment, but rather to avoid gun control issues which are irrelevant to this issue. [MP]
3.65 The 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Perpich v. Department of Defense provides an excellent summary of the history of the militia from 1792 to the present.
A. The Supreme Court [all excerpts are from 110 S.Ct. 2418] in 1990 held that Congress may authorize members of the National Guard of the United States to be ordered to active federal duty for purposes of training outside the United States without either consent of the state governor or declaration of national emergency. The Court, in an unanimous decision, traced the history of the militia starting at 2422 (footnotes and citations excluded):
"Two conflicting themes, developed at the Constitutional Convention and repeated in debates over military policy during the next century, led to a compromise in the text of the Constitution and in later statutory enactments. On the one hand, there was the a widespread fear that a national standing Army posed an intolerable threat to individual liberty and to the sovereignty of the separate states, while on the other hand, there was the recognition of the danger of relying on inadequately trained soldiers as the primary means of providing for the common defense. "Thus Congress was authorized both to raise and support a national Army and also to organize "the Militia."
"In the early years of the Republic, Congress did neither. In 1792, it did pass a statute that purported to establish "an Uniform Militia throughout the United States," but its detailed command that every able-bodied male citizen [Note that the Court left out the word white, which was not a change made by Congress until 1862] between the ages of 18 and 45 be enrolled therein and equip himself with appropriate weaponry was virtually ignored for more than a century, during which time the militia proved to be a decidedly unreliable fighting force. The statute was repealed in 1901. In that year President Theodore Roosevelt declared: "Our militia law is obsolete and worthless." The process of transforming the "National Guard of the several States" into an effective fighting force then began.
"The **** Act [of 1903] divided the class of able-bodied male citizens between 18 and 45 into an "organized militia" to be known as the National Guard of the several states and the remainder of which was then described as the "reserve militia" and which later statutes have termed the "unorganized militia." The statute created a table of organization for the National Guard conforming to that of the Regular Army, and provided that federal funds and Regular Army instructors should be used to train its members.
http://www.adl.org/mwd/faq3.asp#3.4
13.26 What are the two major pieces of federal legislation concerning the militia after the ratification of the Constitution?
A. The 1792 Uniform Militia Act created a militia system that was very decentralized with every able bodied free male citizen required to do militia duty.
The 1903 **** Act recognized that compulsory militia service no longer existed. The organized militia, now called the National Guard, came under much greater federal control and received much higher federal funding.
3.50 When did the term "unorganized militia" originate?
A. The term "unorganized" did not begin to emerge until the 1830s and 1840s, when a massive wave of opposition destroyed the compulsory militia system. Nobody wanted to serve in the militia. State governors and legislators wanted to be able to accommodate this desire, but they were bound by the 1792 Uniform Militia Act, which stated that every white male aged 18-45 would be in the militia.
However, the 1792 Uniform Militia Act explicitly allowed the states to determine who was exempt from militia service. So states divided their militias into two sections, the "organized" militia and the "unorganized" militia. In this way, the letter, though not the spirit, of the 1792 law could be complied with. However, only the "organized" militia would have responsibilities. These people would be volunteers, people who actually wanted to perform militia service; they gradually evolved into the National Guard. These people would have uniforms, guns, and would drill, review and encamp.
The other people were the people who did NOT want to be in the militia. Accordingly, members of the "unorganized" militia were NOT supposed to perform any duty or carry any weapons or have any responsibilities. All that would remain was the nominal authority of the state over them for military manpower purposes. This group of people had no militia responsibilities at all (in some areas they had to register, like for the draft today). In this way states could flaunt the spirit of the 1792 Uniform Militia Act, while nominally keeping to the letter of it.
The term "unorganized militia" was kept in use in subsequent decades as a statutory "reminder" that the state could still obligate its citizens to perform military duty, should it ever want them to. Eventually, U.S. law in the early twentieth century picked up this same usage for the same reason: by creating the "unorganized militia," the United States could guarantee usage of this manpower for military purposes, should the (remote) need ever arise.
But being in the "unorganized militia" conveys to you no rights, only the possibility of responsibilities. All it means is that you belong to that class of the militia which has no responsibilities. Being in the militia allows you to do not a single thing, because only the state and federal governments can create (working together) active militia systems. To date, their interest in doing so has largely concentrated on the National Guard.
Again, let me emphasize that there is not a single right guaranteed to you by virtue of your being in the militia. Here I am excepting the right to keep and bear arms, not to necessarily agree or disagree with any particular interpretation of the Second Amendment, but rather to avoid gun control issues which are irrelevant to this issue. [MP]
3.65 The 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Perpich v. Department of Defense provides an excellent summary of the history of the militia from 1792 to the present.
A. The Supreme Court [all excerpts are from 110 S.Ct. 2418] in 1990 held that Congress may authorize members of the National Guard of the United States to be ordered to active federal duty for purposes of training outside the United States without either consent of the state governor or declaration of national emergency. The Court, in an unanimous decision, traced the history of the militia starting at 2422 (footnotes and citations excluded):
"Two conflicting themes, developed at the Constitutional Convention and repeated in debates over military policy during the next century, led to a compromise in the text of the Constitution and in later statutory enactments. On the one hand, there was the a widespread fear that a national standing Army posed an intolerable threat to individual liberty and to the sovereignty of the separate states, while on the other hand, there was the recognition of the danger of relying on inadequately trained soldiers as the primary means of providing for the common defense. "Thus Congress was authorized both to raise and support a national Army and also to organize "the Militia."
"In the early years of the Republic, Congress did neither. In 1792, it did pass a statute that purported to establish "an Uniform Militia throughout the United States," but its detailed command that every able-bodied male citizen [Note that the Court left out the word white, which was not a change made by Congress until 1862] between the ages of 18 and 45 be enrolled therein and equip himself with appropriate weaponry was virtually ignored for more than a century, during which time the militia proved to be a decidedly unreliable fighting force. The statute was repealed in 1901. In that year President Theodore Roosevelt declared: "Our militia law is obsolete and worthless." The process of transforming the "National Guard of the several States" into an effective fighting force then began.
"The **** Act [of 1903] divided the class of able-bodied male citizens between 18 and 45 into an "organized militia" to be known as the National Guard of the several states and the remainder of which was then described as the "reserve militia" and which later statutes have termed the "unorganized militia." The statute created a table of organization for the National Guard conforming to that of the Regular Army, and provided that federal funds and Regular Army instructors should be used to train its members.
