Posse Comitatus. (Power of the County)
From the start of Patents (by the English Government) and later continued by Earl Granville ( in Northern NC) until Granville’s death in 1763, the Patent Offices in the Colony were corrupt. Hence the “records” of patents/deeds were corrupt. The records were in reality under the control of corrupt County Surveyors. That is a fact.
Between the period of 1763 (after the death of Granville) and 1776 (when we revolted against the Corruption) there were NO lawful patents issued in the Granville District.
But the Colonists prevailed in a Gray Zone of Posse Comitatus deeds that the quasi-official County Commissioners (backed up by the sheriff) essentially cooked up themselves by their own cooked up authority .
When you notice the expressions “now or formerly” used in deeds between 1763 and 1776… such as “Landowner’s now line, formerly Old Landowner’s line” that expression is essentially saying: We the people of this County have taken it upon ourselves to decide who the hell owns this property now.
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Posse Comitatus (pronounced POH-see kuh-MIT-uh-tuss) is a Latin term meaning “power of the county” or “force of the county.”
1. Original / Common Law Meaning
In traditional English and early American law, posse comitatus refers to:
- The authority of a sheriff (or other local law enforcement officer) to summon a group of able-bodied citizens to assist in:
- Maintaining public order
- Suppressing riots or insurrections
- Pursuing and apprehending criminals
- Carrying out court orders
This group of citizens is commonly called a “posse.”
You’ve probably seen this in Western movies, where the sheriff rounds up townspeople to chase outlaws — that’s a classic posse comitatus.
2. Modern Legal Meaning: The Posse Comitatus Act (1878)
In the United States, the term is most famous because of the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law passed in 1878.
What it does:
- It generally prohibits the U.S. military (Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Space Force) from being used to enforce domestic laws or act as a police force within the United States.
- The law was created after the Civil War to prevent federal troops from being used for law enforcement in the Southern states during Reconstruction.
Key Rule:
The military cannot be used as a posse comitatus (i.e., for civilian law enforcement) unless Congress or the Constitution specifically allows it.