[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Mail]  [Sign-in]  [Setup]  [Help]  [Register] 

Pete Buttplug's Butt Plugger Trying to Turn Kids into Faggots

Mark Levin: I'm sick and tired of these attacks

Questioning the Big Bang

James Webb Data Contradicts the Big Bang

Pssst! Don't tell the creationists, but scientists don't have a clue how life began

A fine romance: how humans and chimps just couldn't let go

Early humans had sex with chimps

O’Keefe dons bulletproof vest to extract undercover journalist from NGO camp.

Biblical Contradictions (Alleged)

Catholic Church Praising Lucifer

Raising the Knife

One Of The HARDEST Videos I Had To Make..

Houthi rebels' attack severely damages a Belize-flagged ship in key strait leading to the Red Sea (British Ship)

Chinese Illegal Alien. I'm here for the moneuy

Red Tides Plague Gulf Beaches

Tucker Carlson calls out Nikki Haley, Ben Shapiro, and every other person calling for war:

{Are there 7 Deadly Sins?} I’ve heard people refer to the “7 Deadly Sins,” but I haven’t been able to find that sort of list in Scripture.

Abomination of Desolation | THEORY, BIBLE STUDY

Bible Help

Libertysflame Database Updated

Crush EVERYONE with the Alien Gambit!

Vladimir Putin tells Tucker Carlson US should stop arming Ukraine to end war

Putin hints Moscow and Washington in back-channel talks in revealing Tucker Carlson interview

Trump accuses Fulton County DA Fani Willis of lying in court response to Roman's motion

Mandatory anti-white racism at Disney.

Iceland Volcano Erupts For Third Time In 2 Months, State Of Emergency Declared

Tucker Carlson Interview with Vladamir Putin

How will Ar Mageddon / WW III End?

What on EARTH is going on in Acts 16:11? New Discovery!

2023 Hottest in over 120 Million Years

2024 and beyond in prophecy

Questions

This Speech Just Broke the Internet

This AMAZING Math Formula Will Teach You About God!

The GOSPEL of the ALIENS | Fallen Angels | Giants | Anunnaki

The IMAGE of the BEAST Revealed (REV 13) - WARNING: Not for Everyone

WEF Calls for AI to Replace Voters: ‘Why Do We Need Elections?’

The OCCULT Burger king EXPOSED

PANERA BREAD Antichrist message EXPOSED

The OCCULT Cheesecake Factory EXPOSED

Satanist And Witches Encounter The Cross

History and Beliefs of the Waldensians

Rome’s Persecution of the Bible

Evolutionists, You’ve Been Caught Lying About Fossils

Raw Streets of NYC Migrant Crisis that they don't show on Tv

Meet DarkBERT - AI Model Trained On DARK WEB

[NEW!] Jaw-dropping 666 Discovery Utterly Proves the King James Bible is God's Preserved Word

ALERT!!! THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION WILL SOON BE POSTED HERE

Pinguinite You have mail..

What did Bill Clinton and Gavin Newsom talk about in Mexico? I have an idea


Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

U.S. Constitution
See other U.S. Constitution Articles

Title: Trump’s Alarming Abuse of Executive Power
Source: The American Conservative
URL Source: https://www.theamericanconservative ... ming-abuse-of-executive-power/
Published: Feb 19, 2019
Author: Bruce Fein
Post Date: 2019-02-19 10:52:39 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1007
Comments: 5

The only 'national emergency' is a president who violates the Constitution to get his way.

President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Rose Garden at the White House, Jan. 4, 2019. Michael Candelori/Shutterstock

There may be worse executive power abuses than President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the Mexican border that Congress has steadfastly refused to fund. But if there are, they don’t readily come to mind.

Trump’s national emergency declaration is worse than the 59 others declared by presidents since 1976 because it was employed to usurp the express power of the purse—the most important congressional check on executive abuses.

Only two of the prior national emergency declarations involved the expenditure of funds not appropriated by Congress: one by George H.W. Bush in 1990 during the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, and the other by George W. Bush in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.

In both cases, the funds were transferred among military accounts in response to immediate (not protracted) developments for a military purpose. In neither case, had Congress repeatedly rejected the President’s proposed expenditure of funds, rather Congress acquiesced in the expenditures. In Trump’s case, he is expending funds for a purpose that Congress has consistently and steadfastly denied over long months. Trump is defying Congress, not working in collaboration with it, over a power Congress has a right to exercise.

Under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, Congress may pass a joint resolution to terminate the president’s declaration. If Trump persists, the United States Supreme Court can hold the executive usurpation of the congressional power of the purse unconstitutional. Further, Trump’s direction that funds be expended that have not been appropriated by Congress for that purpose would be criminal under the Anti-Deficiency Act and an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor.

The Anti-Deficiency Act criminalizes the knowing authorization of a federal expenditure exceeding the amount it was appropriated for. In my opinion, a presidential crime that usurps a core congressional power constitutes an impeachable offense. Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist 65:

The subjects of [impeachment] jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself.  

Trump knows his national emergency demarche on the Constitution will shipwreck. He raced forward anyway to excite his base and to save face after coming out of the shutdown with less than he promised. Article I, section 9, clause 7 prohibits the president from spending money not appropriated by Congress: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.”  

James Madison described the congressional power of the purse as the cornerstone against executive abuses. He elaborated in Federalist 58:

This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure.

The power of the purse was used to terminate the Vietnam War after President Richard Nixon persisted in belligerency despite repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (perhaps one of the great examples of this practice in modern times).

Accordingly, any presidential expenditure must be justified by a congressional appropriation. The president has no inherent Article II power to spend. Moreover, Congress is prohibited by the non-delegation doctrine from endowing the president with limitless discretion to declare a national emergency and spend money as he sees fit without any intelligible statutory standards. Thus, Congress could not, in the manner of Humpty Dumpty, make a national emergency mean whatever the president wants it to mean, neither more nor less.

Congress has never specifically defined a national emergency. But every definition in the English language requires circumstances necessitating an “immediate” response. Trump has conceded, “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.” In other words, there was no need for immediate action. Indeed, the president waited for months—including a 35-day government shutdown—before declaring a national emergency without any change in circumstances.

According to the Center for Migration Studies, most undocumented aliens in the United States have overstayed their visas. They have not illegally crossed the border and will be unaffected by a wall. According to the Trump administration’s own statistics, 80 to 90 percent of illegal drugs interdicted by law enforcement are at the ports of entry and unaffected by a border wall. Illegal immigration is at historic lows, and the incidence of crime among the undocumented is less than among American citizens. These statistics help explain Trump’s inability to persuade Congress or a popular majority that a national emergency exists along the Mexican border.

Federal courts will be equally unpersuaded. As Justice Benjamin Cardozo observed, “The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men, do not turn aside in their course and pass the judges by.” Thus did the Supreme Court repudiate Nixon’s bogus invocation of executive authority during the Vietnam War when he tried to suppress publication of the Pentagon Papers in New York Times v. United States (1971). Likewise did it reject President Harry Truman’s national emergency argument during the Korean War to seize steel mills in Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer (1952).

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives will likely sue to block the national emergency measure. The trailblazer case here is U.S. House of Representatives v. Burwell in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. There, the Republican-controlled House was granted standing to sue over Affordable Care Act expenditures that had not been funded by Congress.

Only scrupulous adherence to constitutional processes will keep the law supreme in America. Justice Robert Jackson reminded us in Youngstown Sheet & Tube, “With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law, and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations.” It’s time for Trump to heed his words.

Bruce Fein was associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan and counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran. He is a partner in the law firm of Fein & DelValle PLLC.

(1 image)

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: Deckard (#0)

In Trump’s case, he is expending funds for a purpose that Congress has consistently and steadfastly denied over long months.

That's a lie. Congress has approved the purpose, just not the total amount.

misterwhite  posted on  2019-02-19   11:12:06 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Deckard (#0)

Trump’s national emergency declaration … was employed to usurp the express power of the purse

Another lie. Money has already been approved for use by the Department of Defense. That money will now be repurposed to defend our Southern border.

misterwhite  posted on  2019-02-19   11:15:55 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Deckard (#0)

People can debate about Trump all they want. Yes, there may be some things they disagree about.

But if this invasion is not stopped, the numbers of non citizens will increase, and the drain of our nations treasury will increase. The numbers of Angel Mom & Dads will increase! The local & national crime rate will escalate ! The numbers of CommieCrat voters will increase ! The number of elected offices filled by CommieCrat voters will increase !

Consequently, the speed of the US going down the drain will dramatically increase !!

All of the aforementioned trends ARE NOT what I want. I suspect no one else here want that either !!

Short of armed rebellion, even with his faults, Trump seems to be the only one trying to stop it !!

I certainly have disagreement's with how he is trying to do it, but . . . .

I DO NOT want to have to make my homestead like a fortified SVN basecamp !!!!

Our nation is simply on the highway to hell !! It is not academic !!!

Si vis pacem, para bellum

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

Never Pick A Fight With An Old Man He Will Just Shoot You He Can't Afford To Get Hurt

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." (Will Rogers)

"No one ever rescues an old dog. They lay in a cage until they die. PLEASE save one. None of us wants to die cold and alone... --Dennis Olson "

AMERICA! Designed by geniuses. Now run by idiots.

Stoner  posted on  2019-02-19   12:34:33 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Stoner (#3)

But if this invasion is not stopped, the numbers of non citizens will increase, and the drain of our nations treasury will increase. The numbers of Angel Mom & Dads will increase! The local & national crime rate will escalate ! The numbers of CommieCrat voters will increase ! The number of elected offices filled by CommieCrat voters will increase !

Yes the national emergency called for by Trump directly interferes with the Demoncrats plan of mass amnesty and mass voter registration. They will not relent until Texas turns deep blue.

redleghunter  posted on  2019-02-19   14:45:41 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: redleghunter (#4) (Edited)

" Yes the national emergency called for by Trump directly interferes with the Demoncrats plan of mass amnesty and mass voter registration. They will not relent until Texas turns deep blue. "

Yes, they want a continuous inflow of CommieCrat voters . That will give them perpetual stranglehold control on the political control of the nation.

Then our only option's will be surrender, or the 4th box !

Si vis pacem, para bellum

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

Never Pick A Fight With An Old Man He Will Just Shoot You He Can't Afford To Get Hurt

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." (Will Rogers)

"No one ever rescues an old dog. They lay in a cage until they die. PLEASE save one. None of us wants to die cold and alone... --Dennis Olson "

AMERICA! Designed by geniuses. Now run by idiots.

Stoner  posted on  2019-02-19   15:04:23 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Mail]  [Sign-in]  [Setup]  [Help]  [Register] 

Please report web page problems, questions and comments to webmaster@libertysflame.com