President Donald Trump, having failed to persuade Congress to appropriate a full $5.7 billion for his border wall, has said he’ll declare a national emergency and take the money from Department of Defense funds.
The thing is, he doesn’t even pretend there is any emergency involved.
I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this. But I’d rather do it much faster. And I don’t have to do it for the election. I ’ve already done a lot of wall for the election. 2020. And the only reason we’re up here talking about this is because of the election—because they want to try to win an election, which it looks like they’re not going to be able to do.
If a President can simply declare a national emergency and override the will of Congress, what power does he lack to make himself a dictator?
President Trump did not give himself these emergency powers, and he is not the first one to use them or abuse them, but none before him have been so blatant about the lack of justification for using these powers.
Our Constitution sets up a form of government with three branches of government with separate powers—the legislative, executive and judiciary—with the idea that each would check and balance the power of the others.
The problem with this is that separation of powers means separation of responsibility. The path of least resistance for Congress is to abdicate responsibility to the President.
It’s true that Congress is not entirely to blame in this case. The original law that President Trump invoked allowed Congress to veto an emergency declaration by a majority vote of the Senate and the House of Representations. The Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional; it said the two-thirds votes are required not only to overturn vetoes of legislation, but to overturn any Presidential action.
Even so, it is Congress that over the years has given Presidents the powers of dictators, and it is the responsibility of Congress to take these powers back. No member of Congress who declares themselves a part of the “resistance” to President Trump can be taken seriously if they continue to allow him the powers of a dictator.
LINKS
Republic’s End: Trump’s Border Wall by Ian Welsh.
A Fishy Emergency Threatens the Republic by Doug Muder for The Weekly Sift.
Trump’s dictator move is the real emergency—and we handed him the keys by Will Bunch for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
What Is and Isn’t a Big Deal in Trump’s Executive Actions Related to the Border by Jack Goldsmith for Lawfare.
Tags: Congress, Constitution, constitutional government, Donald Trump, Emergency Powers, President and Congress, Southern Border Wall
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