Georgetown Center for the Constitution

Organizing the Militia

The Congress shall have Power To . . . provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress . . . .

Article I

Section 8

Clause 23

Robert J. Delahunty, Structuralism and the War Powers: The Army, Navy and Militia Clauses, 19 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 1021 (2003).

Arguing that the Framer’s structural choice to place the Militia Clauses under Article I both augments and constrains the President’s military power.
Alan Hirsch, The Militia Clauses of the Constitution and the National Guard, 56 U. Cin. L. Rev. 919 (1988).

Analyzing the Framers’ debate over control of the militia and the historical development of the militia to resolve several important constitutional issues that arise from the modern-day National Guard’s hybrid state-federal status.