Emergency Authority

"They'll sweep us into the White House with powers that'll make martial law look like anarchy."

— Eleanor Iselin, The Manchurian Candidate

As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. If a situation is dire enough, it will prompt the highest-recognized figure of authority to garner near-dictatorial influence, or Emergency Powers, until a crisis can be abated.

Ideally, these Emergency Powers are meant to speed up the process of ending a crisis; mitigate the turmoil during conflict; and/or assume a set of duties to keep order until civil unrest is permanently pacified.

Realistically speaking, if a single individual gains a set of autocratic authority, they will abuse it, often prolonging their acquisition of Emergency Powers until further notice. One of the more common ways of doing this would be to declare a "state of emergency" (a government alert that rationalizes the bending or breaking of laws and/or liberties). Note that a state of emergency can be used to suppress internal opposition without having to respect human rights.

How Emergency Powers are attained varies. Sometimes, it's granted by legislative or judicial branches. Other times, it's adopted by the all-but-name autocrat by default. In some of the deadlier scenarios, the soon-to-be autocrat can unilaterally assume Emergency Powers and rationalize that it's justified because of the direness of a situation, subsequently overriding or depriving the human rights of any group the autocrat dislikes.

Emergency Powers occur during times of any crisis; natural or man-made disasters, periods of civil unrest, just after a declaration of war, during an internal or external armed conflict, or an unstable regime change where interim commanders take over to keep the peace.

When emergency powers are abused, it inevitably creates a Government-Exploited Crisis. Related to Let No Crisis Go to Waste, where something negative is turned positive, and is the ideal (but far rarer) scenario for Emergency Powers. Contrast Screw the Rules, I Make Them!, where the autocrat doesn't even bother with the bureaucracy and rules as he sees fit. Sister Trope to Cincinnatus, where someone really does give up their Emergency Powers. Subtrope of Godzilla Threshold.

Compare Bequeathed Power, which is when someone grants somebody superpowers. Also compare Day of the Jackboot which often starts with use of emergency authority.

Also known as martial law, but not to be confused with the Sammo Hung TV series of the same name or with the comic Marshal Law.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Bleach. After the Central 46 was destroyed by Aizen, Gotei 13 leader Yamamoto assumed total control as a military dictator until suitable replacements could be found. As a non-abusive example, Yamamoto used the authority to overturn the miscarriage of justice Aizen had previously engineered against Urahara's group and the Visoreds before giving up the authority as promised once the new Central 46 was convened.
• Colonel Shikishima of AKIRA declares martial law near the end of the movie, taking control of the government in order to pursue Tetsuo and end the psychic crisis without interference from politicians like Nezu.

Comic Books

• Secret Empire: Just before the event, Steve Rogers is given the authority, if a severe enough crisis were to occur, to take full command of SHIELD. Funnily enough, soon after this, a severe enough crisis just happens to occur. And then it turns out Steve Rogers is the new leader of HYDRA.
• In V for Vendetta the Norsefire group has been using these sorts of powers to maintain order in Britain, resulting in a dystopian Police State society. In the comic books, after the Leader is assassinated, the ambitious head of the Fingermen tries to grab power and become the new de facto head of government with this as his justification.
• Judge Dredd: The prequel arc "Origins" shows that the current Justice System was the result of the surging crime rates in the American mega-cities and endemic corruption in the courts, driving a desperate Government Special Prosecutor for Street Crime, Eustace Fargo, to petition Congress to suspend several articles of the constitution and enable him to pioneer a new law enforcement agency empowered with "immediate judgment and sentencing". When U.S. President Robert L. Booth started World War III in 2070, the Judges declared him a tyrant and removed him from office, using the Declaration of Independence as legal precedent upon Fargo's advice, effectively becoming the new government. Fargo himself alludes to this on his deathbed years later, reminding Dredd that "it was never meant to be forever."

Films — Live-Action

• In The Siege, the President of the United States declares martial law in Brooklyn and the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, under Major General William Devereaux (Bruce Willis), occupies the city district, seals it off, and proceeds to round up all young Arab males into makeshift detention camps.
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Palpatine manipulated the Galactic Senate to grant Emergency Powers to the Chancellor in the wake of the Separatist Crisis. This meant he received executive privilege to declare the creation of an army and extend his term of office long after it was constitutionally required to end. Such broad powers allowed him to write and pass the Sector Governance Decree, which allowed him to appoint military governors (read: Moffs) to every planet in the Republic. He ultimately uses this power as one of the stepping stones to reforging the Republic into a Galactic Sith Empire (Palpatine is in fact a Sith Lord named Darth Sidious who manipulated both the Republic and the opposing Separatists as well as turn hero Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader) and ensure he would have these powers and more for the rest of his life in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
• The Dark Knight Trilogy discusses this concept and applies it to Batman's vigilante actions. The crisis is the mob families' control of Gotham City, and the corruption that prevents the police and the courts from opposing the mob. Bruce Wayne justifies his illegal and unethical acts (snooping, beating up criminals, etc.) by insisting that they're temporary measures to help the police do their jobs—once Gotham is able to protect itself, he'll retire the Batman persona. District Attorney Harvey Dent, initially one of Batman's biggest fans, favorably compares Batman to the first Roman dictators.
• Gabriel Over the White House (1933) is a weird film in which The Great Depression and the epidemic of organized crime leads the President to take dictatorial control. What's weird is that this is presented in the film as a good thing. Disturbingly, this was an idea some people actually liked at the time.
• Near the climax of Them!, martial law is declared in Los Angeles after giant ants are discovered to be Down L.A. Drain, possibly establishing a new nest and breeding in large numbers.
• The X-Files: Fight the Future: The Conspiracy's grand plan (or so Conspiracy Theorist Dr. Kurtzweil believes) for the time where they will take over the United States is that they will manufacture a grand disaster at the moment they feel they are ready so FEMA will declare emergency powers and rise as a "secret government".
• Deep Impact: A benign use comes up when the US President reveals the incoming comet to the public. He immediately invokes emergency powers to declare martial law and freeze the economy in an attempt to forestall unrest and profiteering. This is portrayed as a reasonable response on the government's part and there is no indication that the emergency authority remains in effect after the comet crisis is over.
• Shin Godzilla: The Japanese Prime Minister is forced to declare a state of emergency when it becomes clear that existing laws and procedures are inadequate to deal with the threat posed by Godzilla. Mobilization of the JSDF in the absence of a threat from a foreign country is a particular sticking point, as well as evacuating Tokyo. Even with the declaration in place, supporting legislation has to be rushed through the Diet.
• Viral: It's announced that to handle the worm flu crisis, US President Barack Obama has declared martial law, with all law enforcement and emergency personell being federalized. Military helicopters drop supplies off, while soldiers wearing hazmat suits haul away any infected people identified, while preventing others from leaving areas of infection (by deadly force if necessary). Soldiers begin patrolling the streets and declare that people must stay in their homes, with it being a felony to harbor anyone infected. Later they are also indicated to be firebombing sites so the infection is stopped. Also, the governor of California orders that people evacuate the region. This is portrayed as harsh, but probably necessary.

Literature

• The Ciaphas Cain series (set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe) has several examples:
  • On Simia Orichalcae (Caves of Ice), Cain served notice that the alternative to martial law was summary execution of anyone who obstructed the Valhallan 597th's defense of the promethium refinery.
  • On Adumbria (The Traitor's Hand), the local acting governor receives emergency powers from the "Council of Claimants" (various offspring of the deceased governor vying for the post) when General Zyvan threatens to declare martial law. The two immediately act to get the aristocrats out of the way.
  • On Nusquam Fundimentibus (The Last Ditch), the threat of martial law is used to persuade the governor to order the evacuation of the capital ahead of a tyranid attack.
• Emberverse. Lawrence Thurston, President-General of the United States of Boise, suspends elections until the end of the emergency, effectively ruling as dictator (literally, as he's copying Ancient Rome). This backfires when the current government officials are getting too old and he decides to reinstate democracy, only to be usurped by his own son who had assumed he would inherit the position. Lawrence realizes too late that he had waited too long to hold an election, as the post-Change generation has no experience of true democracy.
• In the Heinessen coup arc in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the National Salvation Military Council declares martial law on Free Planets Alliance territory after toppling the FPA High Council.
• In The Manchurian Candidate, the conspirators' plan is to assassinate the leading presidential candidate, to provoke a reaction so that, as Eleanor Iselin boasts, "They'll sweep us into the White House with powers that'll make martial law look like anarchy". This is the page quote for this trope.
• In It Can't Happen Here, President Windrip declares a state of emergency (or the 1930s equivalent expression) immediately after taking office and dismisses Congress and the Supreme Court and suspends the Constitution, becoming the dictator of the USA (needless to say, It Happens Here).
• On Gor, city-states are normally headed by Administrators and a council, but in times of war the council may appoint a Ubar who is essentially a Fantasy Counterpart Culture dictator or Generalissimo. When the crisis is over the Ubar is supposed to cede his power back to the council, but often as not decides to remain Ubar. In that case one of two things happen: either his men leave him and he stays in his castle until he is taken out and executed, or his men stand with him and he remains in power until and unless he is deposed (usually by an outside force with its own Ubar). In practice, almost all city-states we've seen are ruled by a Ubar.
• This turns out to be the reason for the periodic genocidal rampages by the Achuultani in Empire from the Ashes — their society is controlled by an AI that abused emergency protocols to seize absolute power, the problem being that the emergency protocols are apparently hard-wired, so it has to perpetuate a permanent state of crisis to maintain power, and has completely reshaped Achuultani society and meddled with available technologies for that purpose. The periodic sweeps is simply done so that Achuultani are always doing something that can be defined as fighting a war somewhere (well, than and removing potential competitors before they get too powerful, but actually fighting efficiently risks ending the crisis).
• As the civil war progresses and the tyrannical US federal government begins to totter in the dystopian near-future setting of Victoria, the President, VP, senior legislators of both Houses and most of the Cabinet are suddenly killed in what is said to be (and may or may not actually be) an improbably successful lone wolf terrorist attack. Then the gloves come off, as the no-nonsense Chairman of the Joint Chiefs shoves aside the designated survivor and proclaims a military government with emergency powers, to last until the rebellion has been suppressed.
• In the Bernard Samson Series, it's mentioned that in Berlin there are draconian laws passed by the Allied Powers after the defeat of Nazi Germany which are still on the books and are used by British Intelligence when they need to lock someone up without trial.
• The Spear: The Thule Society aims to steer global politics to authoritarianism whose only ultimate alternative will be their own system.

Live Action TV

• Altered Carbon. After Joshua Kemp announces an end to the ceasefire, Governor Danica Harlen convinces the Cartel to initiate martial law, over Colonel Carrera's objections, which gives her full control over all military assets on the planet. Her first, immediate act, is to use this new power to put every other member of the Cartel under house arrest and revoke their authority, since she knew they were plotting to usurp her.
  Meth: You can't do this! You don't have the authority!
  Carrera: You gave it to her, you imbecile.
• In Babylon 5, the Earth Government under President Clark uses fear of alien invasion or infiltration to justify martial law and its progression of power grabs. While the fears are generally unfounded, they used scary footage of Shadow ships (their secret allies), False Flag Operations (including the assassination of the previous president), and alleged conspiracy theories such as Sheridan and the Minbari breeding Minbari-human hybrids on the Babylon 5 station to subvert the human race—all in order to build a full-blown Orwellian dictatorship where everyone was paranoid and spying on everyone else, and the government could dispense with its political enemies however it saw fit (this was after Clark had assassinated his predecessor-the death made to look accidental-so he could take power to begin with).
• Carnival Row: It turns out that in a crisis the Burgish Chancellor can do things not permitted by law ordinarily to safeguard national security. Based on this, Chancellor Jonah Breakspear orders that Vignette, Milworthy and Sophie be summarily guillotined.
• The Crown (2016). In "Coup", Lord Mountbatten is approached by a cabal of businessmen convinced that the policies of the Wilson government will lead to disaster. specifically Plan Brutus which will give the government emergency powers to manage the budget deficit. Aware that he's being asked to lead The Coup, Mountbatten says that's not practical in a First World country like Britain, but it would be possible if the Queen could be persuaded to invoke the Emergency Powers Act of 1920. Fortunately, Queen Elizabeth II has no intention of undermining democracy and tells Mountbatten it's out of the question.
• The Doctor Who Series 8 finale, "Death in Heaven", reveals that the governments of Earth have agreed that, in the event of a global invasion or catastrophe, the Doctor is to be made acting President of Earth. To keep the power in check, it's only in effect while he's aboard Boat One, which is rather like the idea of Air Force One.
• One episode of Garrow's Law drops the anvil that emergency powers are often preserved long after the emergency ceases when Garrow defends someone who is being prosecuted under emergency laws even though they really shouldn't apply.
• In The Last Ship, Alisha Granderson's mother, who was previously a minor bureaucrat, ends up as the highest-ranking official in the US government after the Red Plague breaks out. Naturally, the power quickly goes to her head.
• The Undeclared War: The UK Prime Minister invokes special powers to deal with the unrest false allegations of the election being rigged caused, which includes declaring a curfew enforced by the police.

Music

• "Order 1081", from the David Byrne and Fatboy Slim collaborative album Here Lies Love, describes a power grab by the Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos. In response to a (possibly manufactured) crisis, he signs an act that extends his terms of office and gives him the power to arrest any "suspicious" characters—which just happens to include his political rivals—without actually pressing charges against them.
• "State of Emergency" by Mitch Benn:
  Why not call a state of emergency?
  Go on TV with great sense of urgency,
  Say it's all to counter insurgency,
  Then you can be President forever.

Tabletop Games

• During Mage: The Ascension's concluding book Ascension, one scenario featured a mass-Awakening of Sleepers across the world forcing the Technocracy to institute their own variation of this in the form of the World Advisory Council, an anti-cult think tank supposedly established to deal with the growing threat of millennial cults. With the Traditions having been framed as apocalypse cults armed with hallucinogenic drugs, the Council ensures that the governments of the world can be directed against the mages without any Sleepers learning the truth - well, any more of it than necessary. Naturally, most of the solutions to the ongoing crisis involve prison camps, brainwashing, and various attempts to wipe out the Traditions once and for all. Unfortunately for the Technocracy, the sheer volume of Awakenings breaks the Masquerade so thoroughly that nobody can buy the "terrorism" excuse anymore, and eventually the Council is stripped of its authority as Sleepers turn on the Technocracy as well.
• In the BattleTech universe, this is how the Captain-General finally became the de facto and hereditary head of state of the Free Worlds League. At the opening of the First Succession War, Captain General Kenyon Marik was able to push through Resolution 288, which essentially gave the Captains-General emergency powers "for the duration of the emergency" (one that, rather conveniently, didn't have any stated end condition, not even the war being won). In actual practice, the Captains-General had been slowly accruing executive power to themselves since the post was shifted from a quasi-elective true emergency dictatorship post that had to be renewed every year by Parliament (somewhat like the ancient Roman dictatores) to a "head of state" post so that the League would have one unified voice on the Star League council. Resolution 288 merely cut most of the remaining leash that Parliament held on the Captain-General. However, the League being what it was, the Captains-General still had to herd cats with Parliament and the provinces at least till the fake Thomas Marik's reforms, which basically amounted to "I'm in charge, you're not, sit down, shut up, and deal with it."

Video Games

• Dead Space 2: When the Sprawl on the Titan station ends up going through a Necromorph outbreak, Hans Tideman is told by his superiors in Earth Gov to not save anybody in the Sprawl. He decides to go against their wishes and declares martial law to save as many people as he could before the situation grew beyond the point of no return.
• The flash game Deep State has this as the goal: the player, who run a State Sec, has to get the full powers.
• Imperator: Rome has two Dictatorship mechanics, based on the Roman example (but not limited to the Roman Republic). One temporarily suspends the need for the leader of a republic to seek Senate approval for personal and diplomatic interactions (but maintains it for law changes). The other, which can be the result of an appointed Dictator refusing to lay down authority and winning the ensuing civil war, or a decision that can be taken by a Republic thoroughly dominated by the Populist faction, changes the government to Dictatorship, which the game classifies as a monarchy.
• In Star Wars: The Old Republic, Iron Lady Supreme Chancellor Saresh goes Jumping Off the Slippery Slope in the Fallen Empire & Eternal Throne expansions and becomes a President Evil using emergency powers to turn The Republic into a People's Republic of Tyranny forcing through whatever laws suit her interests before she's killed/arrested by the Player Character.
• Stellaris:
  • The Galactic Custodian position is this in the Galactic Community (Space United Nations). The Custodian is elected in times of crisis and granted political powers above and beyond even the Galactic Council. However, it is a fixed term, and while it can be extended (or even made permanent), that's up to the Community to vote on, not the Custodian.
  • The Nemesis expansion allows a Galactic Custodian to initiate a vote to reform the Galactic Community into a Galactic Imperium. This is easiest to do during a crisis where everyone is already looking to the Custodian to solve the problem. This basically allows the player to pull the exact trick Palpatine does in the Star Wars prequels to become Emperor, earning them the "With Thunderous Applause" achievement.
• '"Tropico" has this in 3 onwards, called Martial Law. Its primarily used to cancel elections, although it does have the side effect of creating an armed resistance to your tyranny.

Web Animation

• RWBY: During Volume 7, General James Ironwood has Mantle in an oppressive state due to transferring supplies meant to help the city to Amity Communications Tower which is kept a secret. Because of this, the people of Mantle start seeing him as a dictator keeping them oppressed which eventually lead to riots and Grimm attacks. After Penny Polendina is framed by Tyrian Callows for murdering Mantle civilians, Ironwood gets mad at the current situation as Winter Schnee states the option to declare martial law to get the job done is still possible. By the end of the Volume when Salem announces her arrival and Ironwood chooses to abandon him plan for Amity in favor of saving only Atlas and leaving Mantle to die, he declares martial law to prevent the rest of the Kingdom's council from interfering, soon cementing his new villainy in Volume 8 by gunning down Councilman Sleet in cold blood for demanding answers for his actions.

Real Life

• The Trope Codifier is the Roman title of dictator, which was bestowed in a crisis when singular leadership was needed. The most famous examples of this is the mostly legendary Cincinnatus, who discarded his powers supposedly after discharging a crisis and his office. The only source for this story is Livy, who wrote centuries later during the reign of Augustus, who was quite keen to remind everyone that he is Just the First Citizen and obviously he can be trusted with extraordinary powers (fingers crossed).
  • The earliest historical era where the office was used was during the Punic Wars when Fabian Maximus Cunctator and later Scipio Africanus became dictators to better defend the state against Hannibal's invasion. Fabian's use of the office was undermined because nobody liked his delaying strategy (Cunctator which means Delayer was an insult) and the Senate declared his political enemy Marcus Minucius co-Dictator, who promptly oversaw the disastrous defeat at Cannae. The senate later clashed with Scipio Africanus as well, after his famous victories, where they suspected (not without justice) that the senator was using his military prowess to enrich himself and his clients.
  • The Republic later made up other forms of emergency measures, largely because the extraordinary conditions that call for dictatorship cannot be invoked to deal with say reform movements by tribunes and others. So there needed to be another means that was, strictly speaking, not in the constitution. The most notable is what Julius Caesar described as the Senatus Consultum Ultimum, calling on the consuls "to see that no harm comes to the state". Under this decree, Gaius Gracchus, his supporters and some 1000 others were murdered without a trial and their bodies dumped in the Tiber river. Cicero invoked this again during the Catiline Conspiracy to justify the summary execution without trial of supporters of Catilina and calling the latter an outlaw. The decree was invoked against a rebel general, Marcus Lepidus, and finally was invoked by the Senate to illegally appoint Pompey a single consul for a year. The Consul was an elected office and the Senate had no right to nominate a candidate (more or less Dictator with the Serial Numbers Filed Off).
  • Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix in his Second March on Rome, had himself elected dictator for life, and ruled for three years, presiding over mass purges and confiscation of property before surrendering his title. Decades later, Julius Caesar-so nearly one of Sulla's victims-became dictator-for-life after defeating Pompey, and ruled for five years before his assassination. His successor Augustus largely phased out the word dictator and called himself Princeps, the First Citizen even if he was far and away the most dictatorial of that entire period and his regime was the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier for modern dictatorship.
• Germany's constitution under the Weimar Republic included Article 48, which allowed the President to declare a state of emergency, suspend many civil liberties, and even rule by decree for a short time without consulting the German parliament, known as the Reichstag. It was intended to be an emergency measure but was used more and more by President Paul von Hindenburg to conduct routine business. It severely destabilized Germany's democracy and provided the Nazis with a simple tool to establish a dictatorship after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933. After the Reichstag Fire, Hitler convinced Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree, which invoked Article 48, just before he had the Enabling Act passed on the very next month, which allowed his new government to pass laws without needing to go through the Reichstag and soon became the cornerstone of Hitler's new regime. Technically speaking, Hitler never actually abolished the Weimar Constitution; he declared a state of emergency that lasted twelve years.
• President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the American Civil War, and at one point ordered troops into New York City to suppress the draft riots. Bear in mind that the draft riots, originally a protest against conscription, devolved into race riots and the worst violence in New York history (even more people died than in 9/11). So within the context, it was seen as necessary. He had suspended it already in Maryland before for much the same reasons and circumstances, while ignoring a court order which commanded release of prisoners detained under this. Both then and now these decisions are controversial to say the least, quite possible the most contested part of his legacy. Lincoln himself also ended up having to sack his army commander in Missouri near the end of the war for refusing to release pro-Confederate political leaders arrested under the martial law declaration, even though it was obvious that the United States had basically won by then.
• French law:
  • It allows the declaration of a state of emergency, which enables authorities to enact censorship, curfews, house searches in all hours (instead of between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m.) and sending people before military courts; however, the constitution cannot be amended.
  • Article 16 of the Constitution gives full powers to the President in cases of near destruction of the State.
  • In French history, the famous Reign of Terror of The French Revolution was conceived and justified as a state of emergency. Historians don't doubt that the stakes were high: France was in the middle of civil war and external invasion from every European power, and the Terror was part of a declaration of total war. The Terror was noted for its large-scale repression of political opponents but statistics show that all of it was contained to areas affected by civil war and the frontiers and that most of France was unaffected, which seems to support that it was mainly a war measure. However later critics point out that the executions and continued and intensified after immediate military threats were dealt with, with even the primitive legal fetters removed in the final months of the "Great Terror". This eventually led to a backlash with the government toppled, many of its leaders then suffering the same treatment as they previously doled out (i.e. summary trial then beheading by the guillotine), along with mass suppression of their supporters.
  • The état de siège, or martial law, allows military courts to try defendants and let the military rule instead of the civilians.
  • This happened in June 1940 when France's military was collapsing under Germany's attack and in a panic the parliament voted to give emergency powers to Maréchal Philippe Pétain, who was a war hero after saving France during the Battle of Verdun in 1917. The hope was that he could salvage the war. Pétain, who was arguably senile, a fascist sympathizer and saw the writing on the wall, instead negotiated an armistice with Germany and established Vichy France.
• Indira Gandhi declared such a state in India after being convicted of electoral fraud, and protestations from her opposition. The Emergency created panic around the world for the possibilities of India becoming a dictatorship, but its high unpopularity and constant protests led to its withdrawal after nearly two years.
  • In the case of Kashmir, India has maintained martial law and curfews in the state with its army occupying and administering the valley for decades, with their rule being highly unpopular among locals.
• During the eleven year period of Charles I and his Personal Rule, he attempted to rule without Parliament, who held the ability to raise money and control spending. To do this, he sought various extralegal ways of raising money, often by exploiting old laws in unintended ways. The most famous example of this is "Ship Money", which was intended to be an emergency tax that could be issued to coastal counties that would pay for the construction of warships in a hurry. Because the law didn't define what an emergency was, or state that it had to apply to coastal counties, Charles I simply declared a perpetual emergency and had everybody pay Ship Money regardless of where they live.
• Canada has done this under the old War Measures Act during the two World Wars and in the October Crisis when Quebec Liberation Front separatist terrorists began a campaign of bombings, kidnappings, murders and bank robberies throughout Quebec. Canadian Army soldiers were brought in to help law enforcement apprehend suspected FLQ terrorists and step up security in major cities.
• During the "Period of mobilization for the suppression of Communist rebellion" ranging from 1949 to 1987, Taiwan was under martial law due to the "Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion" and the threat the "Red bandits" posed to the island. Naturally, this was also used against all dissent to the regime, most of which was non-communist or even explicitly anti-communist.
• Egypt was under a state of emergency from 1967 to 2012. It was briefly suspended in 1980, and then promptly re-instituted only 18 months later after President Anwar Sadat was assassinated, before finally being lifted after the 2011 revolution. The current authoritarian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a new state of emergency after the 2017 Palm Sunday church bombings in Tanta and Alexandria, which was not lifted until October 2021.
• Martial law was invoked a few times in the Philippines' history, while not the first^note Martial laws were used during the country's fight for independence in the 1890s, and during World War 2, the most notorious one was used by Ferdinand Marcos in 1972 (until 1981) which led to a heap of human rights abuses and thousands of deaths, and the other two lesser-known ones were by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2009 at Maguindanao after the massacre of over 50 people, most of them being journalists, and by Rodrigo Duterte from 2017 to 2019 at the whole island of Mindanao following the siege of the city of Marawi by ISIS-affiliated militants.
  • As an after-effect of Marcos' martial law, the 1987 Constitution laid out guidelines and limits on declaring it to prevent a repeat of what happened in The '70s.
  • In a case that does not involve suspending the writ of habeas corpus, president Rodrigo Duterte banked for the legislature to approve emergency powers for him, to solve Manila's horrendous traffic situation in 2016. Another case was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's declaration of a state of emergency in 2006 after the government claimed that they foiled an alleged coup attempt.
• In the United States, state governorships can invoke statutes to declare a state of emergency which allows them powers like declaring stay-at-home orders and getting funds to help the state. But they're often limited in scope, with things like needing to be approved and renewed every 30 days. The exact rules vary by state. Several states had this happen during the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is also possible on the federal level but as with the governors, there are a lot of limits to prevent too much power being granted. The National Emergencies Act allows this, and Congress can terminate emergency powers with a resolution and there are specific types of emergencies defined where it’s permissible.
  • US law prohibits the military from engaging in activities inside the US, including law enforcement. Apart from the obvious exception in the event of invasion, there are also provisions (particularly the Insurrection Act of 1807) for declaring martial law in emergencies like hurricanes and situations where normal law enforcement has ceased functioning. One of the most famous of the latter was the Little Rock Nine, where nine Black students attempted to attend all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957, following court orders and the approval of the school board. Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent this, claiming he was preserving the peace, prompting the Mayor of Little Rock to request President Eisenhower to take command of the ARNG himself, and also dispatch the 101st Airborne Division to see that the students attended without interference.

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