You Come for Greenland

Let’s take a look at Treaties, NATO, and Trump’s desire to takeover Greenland.

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Now let’s look at NATO. For those who may not know, NATO actually stand for “North Atlantic Treaty Organization”. The U.S. entered NATO by signing the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949. The Treaty was ratified by the Senate on July 21, 1949, and went into force on August 24, 1949. So, the U.S. commitment to NATO is “the supreme law of the land” (remember Article VI, Clause 2 from above).

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty calls for the common defense if one of the Treaty nations is “attacked”. The actual text states, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”

Notice the section I bolded and underlined above. The words “such action as it deems necessary” essentially give individual countries retention of their ability to pursue their own constitutional processes in deciding waht action to take (i.e., Congress can/must still declare war).

Oh - forgot this little tidbit: the United States and Denmark are both treaty members of NATO.

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On to Trump’s desire to annex/takeover Greenland.

Currently, Greenland is an autonomous, self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Prior to its current status, Greenland unofficially became a colony of Denmark in 1721, as internationally recognized as a colony of Denmark under the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, and then was incorporated as an “autonomous, self-governing territory” in 1953 under the Danish Constitution.

Along with the Faroe Islands, it falls under the Danish constitutional term “Rigsfællesskabet”. This means it is not a sovereign state, but it is not a colony. Essentially, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have internal self-rule but are governed by the Kingdom of Denmark in regard to foreign affairs, sovereignty and the Denmark constitution.

So, the world formally recognized Greenland as part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

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Now, IANAL (although I did sleep in my own bed last night), but given:

a) the clause in Article 5 of NATO that states, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all…”, and,

b) the fact that Greenland is internationally recognized as part of the Kingdom of Denmark, then,

An attack on Denmark by the United States would be considered an attack against the United States itself by “…the supreme Law of the Land…” as stated in Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution.

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Finally, let’s take a quick glance at that overused term… treason. Article III, Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S Constitution states, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort…”

Ergo, it seems to clear that forcibly taking Greenland would be considered “levying War” under the U.S. Constitution. When combined with Article 5 of the NATO Treaty which treats an attack against one treaty member as an attack against all treaty members, this would be considered an attack against the United State of America, and whoever planned, ordered and executed the attack would be considered treasonous under Art III, Sec 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution and should be tried as such.

Thus ends my layperson’s legal and constitutional analysis for today.