{"id":7115,"date":"2023-05-20T11:04:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T11:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harvardnsj.org\/?p=7115"},"modified":"2025-08-14T17:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:04:16","slug":"strict-subordination-the-origins-of-civil-control-of-private-military-power-in-state-constitutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/2023\/05\/strict-subordination-the-origins-of-civil-control-of-private-military-power-in-state-constitutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Strict Subordination: The Origins of Civil Control of Private Military Power in State Constitutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alden A. Fletcher[*]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[This essay is available in PDF at this\u00a0link<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resurgence of private militias claiming the protection of the Second Amendment raises a startling question: is the United States a country without a legal monopoly on the use of force? Perhaps not. The constitutions of forty-eight states contain strict subordination clauses that declare, in one way or another, that \u201cin all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.\u201d This strict subordination clause has attracted attention as part of efforts to regulate and prohibit private militias, but it has been largely neglected by legal scholarship. As a result, it remains unclear how well this anti-private militia reading of the clause is supported by legal history. This Article begins the necessary work of tracing the historical origins of civil\u2013military \u201csubordination\u201d and its incorporation into the strict subordination clause. The history uncovered in this Article reveals the clause\u2019s roots in English anxieties over the memory of an independent standing army, its connection to the concept of imperium in imperio in the colonists\u2019 protests against British soldiers, and the unsuccessful push to include the clause in the Federal Constitution. Examining this history alongside the clause\u2019s Founding Era meaning and the Founding Generation\u2019s reaction to historical analogs to today\u2019s private militias confirms strong historical support for the anti-private militia reading. Ultimately, the strict subordination clause is a \u201csleeping giant\u201d in state constitutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n


[*] The views expressed in this Article are solely my own and not those of any institutional affiliations. Thank you to Mary McCord, Mike Loveland, and Garrett Hinck for invaluable insights. Thanks as well to Matthew Harden for his research assistance. The inspiration for this Article came from the work of the Georgetown Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Finally, a tremendous thank you to the editors of the Harvard National Security Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alden A. Fletcher[*] [This essay is available in PDF at this\u00a0link] The resurgence of private militias claiming the protection of the Second Amendment raises a startling question: is the United States a country without a legal monopoly on the use of force? Perhaps not. The constitutions of forty-eight states contain strict subordination clauses that declare, in one way or another, that \u201cin all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.\u201d This strict subordination clause has attracted attention as part of efforts to regulate and prohibit private militias, but it has been largely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,244],"tags":[236,266],"class_list":["post-7115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-articles","category-volume-14","tag-constitutional-law","tag-militia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZtUX-1QL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/nsj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}