Trump declare martial law1/10/2024 Price: How a fragmented country fights a pandemic For instance, it lets Congress suspend the writ of habeas corpus-that is, allow government officials to imprison people without judicial review-“when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it” and “provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” Those few powers it does contain for dealing with certain urgent threats, it assigns to Congress, not the president. Constitution itself includes no comprehensive separate regime for emergencies. Unlike the modern constitutions of many other countries, which specify when and how a state of emergency may be declared and which rights may be suspended, the U.S. Emergency powers are meant to give the government a temporary boost until the emergency passes or there is time to change the law through normal legislative processes. T he premise underlying emergency powers is simple: The government’s ordinary powers might be insufficient in a crisis, and amending the law to provide greater ones might be too slow and cumbersome. But what if a president, backed into a corner and facing electoral defeat or impeachment, were to declare an emergency for the sake of holding on to power? In that scenario, our laws and institutions might not save us from a presidential power grab. With a handful of noteworthy exceptions, this assumption has held up. This edifice of extraordinary powers has historically rested on the assumption that the president will act in the country’s best interest when using them. Other powers are available even without a declaration of emergency, including laws that allow the president to deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest. For instance, the president can, with the flick of his pen, activate laws allowing him to shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the United States or freeze Americans’ bank accounts. While many of these tee up reasonable responses to genuine emergencies, some appear dangerously suited to a leader bent on amassing or retaining power. The moment the president declares a “national emergency”-a decision that is entirely within his discretion-more than 100 special provisions become available to him. Read: The coronavirus outbreak could bring out the worst in Trumpīut will they? Unknown to most Americans, a parallel legal regime allows the president to sidestep many of the constraints that normally apply. Those who see Trump as a threat to democracy comfort themselves with the belief that these limits will hold him in check. After all, Trump can do only so much without bumping up against the limits set by the Constitution and Congress and enforced by the courts. It would be nice to think that America is protected from the worst excesses of Trump’s impulses by its democratic laws and institutions. The moment the president declares a “national emergency”-a decision that is entirely within his discretion-he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority. As democracies around the world slide into autocracy, and nationalism and antidemocratic sentiment are on vivid display among segments of the American populace, Trump’s evident hostility to key elements of liberal democracy cannot be dismissed as mere bluster. He declared that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, would be in jail if he were president, goading crowds into frenzied chants of “Lock her up.” He hinted that he might not accept an electoral loss. During his 2016 campaign, he praised murderous dictators. Trump has long signaled his disdain for the concepts of limited presidential power and democratic rule. More is at stake here than the outcome of one or even two elections. How much further might he go in 2020, when his own name is on the ballot-or sooner than that, if he’s facing impeachment by a House under Democratic control? These measures failed to carry the day, and Trump will likely conclude that they were too timid. To hear more feature stories, see our full list or get the Audm iPhone app.
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