Clinton Docs: Administration Considered Regulating Militias

After the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings, the Clinton White House considered implementing federal regulations of militia organizations, including requiring them to register with the federal government and disclose their weapons inventory. In a memo written on May 28, 1995, Department of Justice aides cited two sources of authority for the government to regulate militias: the Militia Clauses and the Commerce Clause. “We believe that Congress’s authority permits it to regulate any activities that undermine the ability of the militia to achieve its constitutional and statutory purposes,” the aides wrote in the memo, addressed to Assistant Attorney General Walter Dellinger and deputy assistant attorneys general Dawn Johnsen and Richard Shiffrin. Such regulation, “absent other constitutional limitations,” could include banning paramilitary activities, barring contributions to paramilitary organizations, and requiring such organizations to register with the federal government and disclose their membership, a list of their weapons, and “other relevant information regarding their instruction, drilling and maneuvers,” the aides wrote...more