Presidential Emergency Powers www.nytimes.com/...
On March 13 in response to the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic President Trump invoked both the Stafford Act en.wikipedia.org/.... and the National Emergencies Act en.wikipedia.org/.... www.whitehouse.gov/..., at that time, he gleefully boasted the following -
“I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.”
He does. We should all be scared shitless. This nightmare is not over. Impeachment is not the end of Donald J. Trump.
The twice impeached two time popular vote losing one term soon to be ex-president under a ‘National Emergency’ can invoke extraordinary powers that are not even known to senior members of congress. As discussed in a stunning OpEd in the NY Times back in April www.nytimes.com/..., Trump was right. A vast array of extraordinary emergency powers are at the president’s disposal in the event of a ‘National Emergency’ and many of them are likely ones we can’t even know about, because they are not contained in any publicly available laws.
Instead, these presidential emergency power are set forth in classified documents known as “presidential emergency action documents.” As discussed by Elizabeth Goitein and Andrew Boyle (Goitein and Boyle work at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law) in their chilling NY Times OpEd and again by former Senator Gary Hart on July 23 www.nytimes.com/.…these emergency powers give the president authoritarian dictatorial powers that may go far beyond marital law.
We have recently come to learn of at least a hundred documents authorizing extraordinary presidential powers in the case of a national emergency, virtually dictatorial powers without congressional or judicial checks and balances. President Trump alluded to these authorities in March when he said, “I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” No matter who occupies the office, the American people have a right to know what extraordinary powers presidents believe they have. It is time for a new select committee to study these powers and their potential for abuse, and advise Congress on the ways in which it might, at a minimum, establish stringent oversight.
Secret powers began accumulating during the Eisenhower years and have grown by accretion ever since. The rationale originally was to permit a president to exercise necessary control in the case of nuclear war, an increasingly remote possibility since the Cold War’s end. An obscure provision in the Communications Act of 1934 empowers the president to suspend broadcast stations and other means of communication following a “proclamation by the President” of “national emergency.” Powers like these have been deployed sparingly: A few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, a proclamation declaring a national emergency, followed by an executive order days later, invoked some presidential powers, including the use of National Guard and U.S. military forces. (Hart July 23, 2020, www.nytimes.com/...)
This weekend, radical right wing groups loyal to Donald J. Trump are planning to gather again in Washington DC and in every state capitol www.huffpost.com/.... There are serious concerns that individuals and groups attending those demonstrations are intent on fomenting violence www.nytimes.com/.... It is my fear that Trump intends to urge those followers to create violent conflicts that then will allow him to respond by declaring a “National Emergency” and in so doing open a Pandora’s Box of secret presidential emergency powers that would be legally at his disposal. Is there any reason to believe Trump would not do this in a last ditch effort to remain in office?
Perhaps I am just being paranoid — this post is not intended as fear mongering (as many commenters have opined). The authors of those two NY Times OpEds back in April and July are serious people who were then raising real concerns, concerns that remain valid today and represent a real and present danger. The gang of eight at the very least must be read in on whatever these secret emergency presidential powers are.
I have no idea what Congress or the citizenry can do about it if Trump tries to go down a National Emergency rabbit hole, but we need to consider that a ‘National Emergency’ ploy is available to Trump and could be his final gambit in an effort to seize and attempt to retain the dictatorial powers he has so long admired in strong men like Vladimir Putin. Given the opportunity, I have seen nothing over that last four years to make be believe that Trump will not use and abuse any and all powers at his disposal.
To those commenters who have dismissed the serious concerns I’ve attempted to voice here as some sort of fear porn, I sincerely hope that I’m off base and that my fears are overblown and that the nation remains calm quite and peaceful for the next week. I no longer take comfort in norms or traditions or standards of behavior. In non-normal circumstances, the constitution, written law and legal precedent can be set aside to allow government response to emergency conditions. The extent to which emergency presidential powers need be kept secret and the apparent absence or limits on checks and balances are especially troubling in the age of Trump.
If you have not done so, I suggest that you read the Goitein and Boyle and Hart editorials. I first wrote about this issue of emergency presidential powers back in April, after the Goitein and Boyle editorial appeared in the NY Times, www.dailykos.com/… That diary spent some time on the RecList, months before the pResident encouraged a mob of thousands of armed followers to believe he had been cheated in an election and urged them to march to the Capitol and demand the overturn of the certified results of the election.
The editorial board of the NY Times thought that emergency presidential powers and the secrecy surrounding them was a topic worthy of public consideration back then, and I think now more than ever the concerns raised by those editorials are valid and worthy of reconsideration.
The inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cannot come too soon. I long for a return to normal.
