226 In this case, the Court found that the Rhode Island legislature had been within its rights in resorting to the rights and usages of war in combating insurrection in that state. Borden 225 that state declarations of martial law were conclusive and therefore not subject to judicial review. In the early years of the Supreme Court, the American judiciary embraced the latter theory as it held in Luther v. 224 By the second theory, martial law can be validly and constitutionally established by supreme political authority in wartime. The first, which stems from the Petition of Right, 1628, provides that the common law knows no such thing as martial law 223 that is to say, martial law is not established by official authority of any sort, but arises from the nature of things, being the law of paramount necessity, leaving the civil courts to be the final judges of necessity. Two theories of martial law are reﬂected in decisions of the Supreme Court. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Office, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Martial law rules