Ohio's Defense Forces

The State of Ohio has it’s forces divided into the Organized and Unorganized Militia components.
The Organized Militia is the Ohio National Guard, the Ohio Naval Militia and the (Ohio) State Defense Forces, (an unpaid, volunteer reserve force that trains with the National Guard and may receive some supplemental state funding or supplies/equipment).

The Unorganized Militia consisted of all (other) able bodied residents of Ohio, between the ages of 17 and 67, supply their own equipment and elects it’s officers from their own ranks.
The Unorganized Militia can be as a last resort, called to active duty by the governor of the state in times of invasion or insurrection according to the state Constitution.

These forces unfortunately were the “evil militia” that were blamed for all manner of lawlessness and even terrorism by the media, the stooges at the Southern Poverty Law center and the Clinton administration.

Until Perpich, State governors were and still are, Commander and Chief of the National Guard of their States and were a defense against the abuses of the federal government and a large standing federal army. Perpich allows the US to federalize otherwise state National Guard forces by the same type of half assed federal authority that gives the president the authority to unilaterally declare war on other countries without Congressional consent. Both are unconstitutional, Supreme Court notwithstanding.

In an example of this Governor’s, Commander and Chief’s authority, the governor of Louisiana refused to give the command of the Louisiana National Guard to Bush right after Katrina. Many of the LA National Guard Units that were in Iraq (as was their equipment) had been federalized and deployed. The remaining Louisiana Guard was still under the governor’s command as C I C. Likewise when the National Guard units deployed return to their respective states the will once again be under the control of their Commander In Chief, the Governor.

The Perpich decision was just another usurpation of state’s sovereignty and the governor’s authority over their own forces

The state Constitutions were not amended by the Perpich decision but the lines were definitely blurred as to who has the the ultimate control of the Organized Militia, the State’s own National Guard. This falls into the federalization of state law enforcement also.