Will Obama Federalize National Guard Units Disobeying Federal Directives?

As this blog has noted, while the majority of state National Guard units have followed the Pentagon directive to extend spousal benefits to legally married same sex couples.  Four states, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana, however, have flipped the middle finger to the Pentagon and the Department of Defense even though the vast majority of their National Guard funding comes from Washington and the federal government, not state revenues.  The question thus becomes what will the federal government/Barack Obama do.  Some suggest that based on historical precedent, Obama should federalize the National Guard units in these rogue states.  The Washington Blade looks at this approach.  Here are excerpts:

As National Guard units in several states refuse to process spousal benefit applications for troops in same-sex marriages, one advocate says there’s a unique — yet unlikely — solution: President Obama could federalize the state units.

Ret. Lt. Col. Chris Rowzee, spokesperson on National Guard affairs for the American Military Partner Association, raised the possibility of federalizing the National Guard units to ensure states offer spousal benefits to gay troops.

At least four states — Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana — are refusing to give troops in same-sex marriages military IDs for their partners by denying these couples’ applications at state-run facilities. That hampers the couples’ ability to receive health, pension and housing benefits afforded to other service members.

Chris Jenks, a former Army judge advocate general and law professor at Southern Methodist University, said federalizing elements of the National Guard and withholding funds are both viable options for Obama.

“Ultimately, if the governors of the four states persist in their order to their state National Guards to not provide benefits to same-sex married guard members, the governors run a risk that the president will federalize those state national guards,” Jenks said. “One hopes it wouldn’t come to that.
“This would be an extreme example, but they could … federalize the troops, and in that case, the state governor would have zero say over what the guard unit then does,” Rowzee said.
In the 1950s, President Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard when the governor of that state was using it to enforce racial discrimination at Little Rock Central High School. In 1963, President Kennedy took similar action in Alabama to desegregate the University of Alabama.

Legal experts who spoke with the Blade agreed the decision to refuse to process these applications violates federal law.

“Do I honestly believe that the governor of Texas will be forever able to defy a DOD directive? No, and I think he knows that,” Rowzee said. “I think he’s using this issue to try to gain political points, and the problem is it harms people in the meantime. It harms our military families.”

 If Obama doesn't want to take the step of federalizing the National Guard in these rogue states, then I hope the Pentagon will cease all funding to these units.  That's right, 100% of the federal funds.  Let state National Guard members see their paychecks stop and all equipment provision come to an end and I suspect some overnight epiphanies will come about.