Rumors of martial law

There have been rumblings of the US being under martial law.  When I came across this, I did a little research and discovered that martial law has two different meanings.   The main meaning is what we’re all afraid of: putting us under the control of the armed forces.

The second meaning refers to a House rule and has nothing to do with soldiers in our streets. Here is the text of the rule:

That House rule (Rule XIII(6)(a)) provides that a resolution (called a rule) reported by the Rules Committee cannot be considered by the House on the same legislative day that the rule is reported (except by a two-thirds vote of the House). This is supposed to ensure that Members of the House and the public have at least one day to examine and analyze what is in legislation before they have to debate and vote on it.
This extraordinary procedure is known as a “martial law” rule because it suspends the normal procedures and safeguards and allows the House Leadership to operate in a more authoritarian fashion.