Posse Comitatus Act. The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. Â§ 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878 by President Rutherford B. Hayes. The purpose of the act â in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807 â is to limit the powers of the federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.
The U.S. state of West Virginia has 55 counties. Fifty of them existed at the time of the Wheeling Convention in 1861, before which West Virginia was part of the state of Virginia.
Alaska's Unorganized Borough is divided into 11 census areas that are statistically equivalent to counties. As of 2013, the United States has 3,007 counties and 137 county equivalents for a total of 3,144 counties and county equivalents. The number of counties per state ranges from the 3 counties of Delaware to the 254 counties of Texas. Counties have significant governmental functions in all states except Rhode Island and Connecticut, where county governments have been abolished.