POSSE COMITATUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Posse comitatus

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noun

Posse comitatus n.

(Law) The power of the county, or the citizens who may be summoned by the sheriff to assist the authorities in suppressing a riot, or executing any legal precept which is forcibly opposed.

A collection of people; a throng; a rabble. (Colloq.) Note: The word comitatus is often omitted, and posse alone used. "A whole posse of enthusiasts." "As if the passion that rules were the sheriff of the place, and came off with all the posse."

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Etymology of 'Posse comitatus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Posse comitatus" Quotes from Famous Books

... the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men ...

— On the Duty of Civil Disobedience • Henry David Thoreau

... order to cast an odium upon the power of calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, it has been remarked that there is nowhere any provision in the proposed Constitution for calling out the POSSE COMITATUS, to assist the magistrate in the execution of his duty, whence it has been inferred, that military force was intended to be his only auxiliary. There is a striking incoherence in the objections which have appeared, ...

— The Federalist Papers

Words linked to "Posse comitatus" : law, police, posseman, constabulary