15 February 2019
TRENDING

How to stop Trump.

Voices4America
Voices4America

This article from the Wall Street Journal last month shows how we can stop Trump's attempt to subvert our Democracy should he call a National Emergency because Congress won't bend to his will.

It is by Jess Bravin and was written last month. The title above is mine.


Crit­ics of the Trump ad­min­istra­tion say they might sue if the pres­i­dent de­clares a na­tional emer­gency to side­step con­gres­sional op­po­si­tion to his goal of a wall along the Mex­ican bor­der. How might such lit­i­ga­tion play out?

What le­gal au­thor­i­ties could Pres­i­dent Trump claim?

Sev­eral fed­eral statutes al­low the pres­i­dent to re-allocate cer­tain funds Con­gress has ap­pro­pri­ated dur­ing a na­tional emer­gency for spe­cific pur­poses. The White House hasn't an­nounced which par­tic­u­lar pow­ers it could as­sert, but le­gal ex­perts have fo­cused on pro­vi­sions al­low­ing re­al­lo­ca­tion of ap­pro­pri­a­tions for mil­i­tary con­struc­tion or for civil works projects by the Army Corps of En­gi­neers, be­cause they could open up the bil­lions of dol­lars the pres­i­dent wants for the wall.

Could the De­mo­c­ra­tic-con­trolled House of Rep­re­sentatives sue to block him?

If the ad­min­is­tra­tion re­allocates funds that Con­gress has ap­pro­pri­ated for other projects, the House of Rep­resen­ta­tives, now led by De­mocrats, po­ten­tially could sue on grounds that its own con­sti­tutional pow­ers have been in­fringed. Such a case likely would be filed in the U.S. Dis­trict Court in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., which pre­vi­ously sided with the House in an ap­pro­pri­ations dis­pute with the Obama-era White House.

In gen­eral, courts pre­fer not to de­cide dis­putes be­tween other branches of gov­ern­ment, re­ly­ing in­stead on the po­lit­i­cal process to work things out. But if the House's De­mo­c­ra­tic lead­ership pro­ceeds with its own law­suit against Mr. Trump, it can thank the pre­vi­ous Re­pub­li­can ma­jor­ity for paving the way. Un­der Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), the House voted to sue the Obama ad­min­is­tra­tion al­leg­ing it had taken un­law­ful steps to im­ple­ment the Af­ford­able Care Act, in­clud-ing re­al­lo­cat­ing cer­tain funds to re­im­burse in­sur­ers. In 2015, a fed­eral dis­trict court in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., found the House had stand­ing to pur­sue ar­gu­ments that the ex­ec­u­tive branch usurped its prin­ci­pal power, that of ap­pro­pri­at­ing fed­eral funds. The "con­sti­tu­tional struc­ture would col­lapse, and the role of the House would be mean­ing­less, if the Ex­ec­u­tive could cir­cum­vent the ap­propri­a­tions process and spend funds how­ever it pleases," Judge Rose­mary Col­lyer wrote.

What would a po­ten­tial suit fo­cus on?

A suit filed by the House would likely fo­cus on two le­gal claims: First, it would con­tend that the stale­mate over the bor­der wall is a po­lit­i­cal dis­pute be­tween the elected branches, not a na­tional emer­gency as con­tem­plated by the Na­tional Emer­gen­cies Act, a 1976 law that for­mal­izes the process for pres­i­den­tial de­c­la­ra­tions. Dozens of pres­i­den­tial de­c­la­ra­tions have been made in the past 40 years with lit­tle con­tro­versy, on crises as nar­row as the civil war in Sierra Leone and as sweep­ing.

Wall Street Journal, January 12, 2019.

###

February 15, 2019

Post Script. In case you were wondering, 2/3 of Americans are opposed to Trump calling a national emergency over his wall. Call your elected officials and say how you feel.#StopTrump


538, February 15, 2019

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