Extraterritorial Application of the Posse Comitatus Act
Advisor(s)
Professor Daniel Maurer
Confirmation
1
Document Type
Paper
Location
ONU McIntosh Center; Dean's Heritage
Start Date
21-4-2026 3:55 PM
End Date
21-4-2026 4:10 PM
Abstract
The Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) is a U.S. law prohibiting the use of “any part of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, or the Space Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws,” but no statute or precedent determines the scope of its application. As far as legal scholarship, the only two known positions are in conflict: a 1989 Office of Legal Counsel memo broadly concluding the PCA does not apply extraterritorially and a 2025 Lawfare article (“Does the Posse Comitatus Act Apply at Guantanamo?”) arguing that the PCA does apply outside the U.S. – specifically with respect to Naval Station Guantánamo Bay – mainly due to that base's unique nature as a de facto territory. Under this logic, the PCA would be inconsistently applied across the approximately 750 U.S. operated military bases worldwide; however, there are three more reasons to conclude the PCA applies much more broadly: (1) the nationality principle of extraterritorial jurisdiction, the broad language used within the PCA itself, and the rationale of United States v. Bowman.
Recommended Citation
Cieply, Kaitlyn Kloor, "Extraterritorial Application of the Posse Comitatus Act" (2026). ONU Student Research Colloquium. 42.
https://digitalcommons.onu.edu/student_research_colloquium/2026/Papers/42
Open Access
Available to all.
Extraterritorial Application of the Posse Comitatus Act
ONU McIntosh Center; Dean's Heritage
The Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) is a U.S. law prohibiting the use of “any part of the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, or the Space Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws,” but no statute or precedent determines the scope of its application. As far as legal scholarship, the only two known positions are in conflict: a 1989 Office of Legal Counsel memo broadly concluding the PCA does not apply extraterritorially and a 2025 Lawfare article (“Does the Posse Comitatus Act Apply at Guantanamo?”) arguing that the PCA does apply outside the U.S. – specifically with respect to Naval Station Guantánamo Bay – mainly due to that base's unique nature as a de facto territory. Under this logic, the PCA would be inconsistently applied across the approximately 750 U.S. operated military bases worldwide; however, there are three more reasons to conclude the PCA applies much more broadly: (1) the nationality principle of extraterritorial jurisdiction, the broad language used within the PCA itself, and the rationale of United States v. Bowman.