On March 13th Around 400 National Guard personnel have been activated across six states to support operations to stem the spread of novel coronavirus, the National Guard Bureau said in a press release.

The governors of Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington have all activated components of their Army and Air National Guard. Guardsmen in California and Maryland are also expected to join their states’ efforts today.

Things have become even more serious and some conspiracy theories suggested that we are on our way to martial law.

Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civilian functions by a government, especially in response to a temporary emergency such as invasion or major disaster, or in an occupied territory.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he is activating the Texas National Guard in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak in the state, which had at least 76 positive cases as of Tuesday. While there is no need to deploy troops yet, he said, Guard members will be standing ready.

“I am grateful to the men and women of the National Guard for their dedication to serving their fellow Texans, and want to assure the public that this is a precautionary measure to make sure the Texas National Guard has the capability to serve at a moment’s notice where they are needed most,” Abbott said in a statement.

Reports emerged that The Texas National Guard is heading out to neighborhoods in the Dallas area.

According to KXAN, the National Guard members are reportedly on a medical mission going door-to-door to see who may have come in contact with a coronavirus patient.



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The Rhode Island police and National Guard are going to begin searching houses for people who came to their state from New York and demand that they self-quarantine.

An executive order signed by Raimondo on Thursday imposes a mandatory quarantine on anyone who enters RI through passenger vehicle, train or bus from New York. The travellers must provide their information to law enforcement and self quarantine for two weeks — as well as anyone who has been to New York in the last two weeks.

The American Civil Liberties Union has blasted the order on Fourth Amendment grounds.

“While the Governor may have the power to suspend some state laws and regulations to address this medical emergency, she cannot suspend the Constitution,” Rhode Island ACLU executive director Steven Brown said in a statement. “Under the Fourth Amendment, having a New York state license plate simply does not, and cannot, constitute ‘probable cause’ to allow police to stop a car and interrogate the driver, no matter how laudable the goal of the stop may be.”

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. In addition, it sets requirements for issuing warrants: warrants must be issued by a judge or magistrate, justified by probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and must particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

Fourth Amendment case law deals with three main issues: what government activities are “searches” and “seizures”, what constitutes probable cause to conduct searches and seizures, and how violations of Fourth Amendment rights should be addressed. Early court decisions limited the amendment’s scope to physical intrusion of property or persons, but with Katz v. United States (1967), the Supreme Court held that its protections extend to intrusions on the privacy of individuals as well as to physical locations. A warrant is needed for most search and seizure activities, but the Court has carved out a series of exceptions for consent searches, motor vehicle searches, evidence in plain view, exigent circumstances, border searches, and other situations.

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