Legal fight expected for Trump’s national emergency declaration

President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency at the southern border to redirect military funds to his border wall project after lawmakers gave him $4.3 billion less than his $5.7 billion ask. But the move is expected to bring court fights that could sink his plan. A House-Senate conference committee could only agree to give the president just shy of $1.4 billion for the barrier project as conferees struck a deal needed to avert another partial government shutdown. The president — who earlier this week said he couldn’t say he was happy about the contents of the compromise — reluctantly agreed to sign it into law after the Senate and House sign off during floor votes Thursday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday afternoon she “may” file a legal challenge to Trump’s national emergency declaration, adding that she didn’t support “any president doing an end-run around Congress.” In a statement issued after her press conference, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer were more explicit in threatening a legal fight. “The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities,” the duo said. Trump’s top spokeswoman, however, brushed off the threat. “We are very prepared, but there shouldn’t be. The president is doing his job. Congress should do theirs,” Sanders told reporters outside her office Thursday. Public Citizen, a left-leaning consumer rights advocacy organization, said in a statement Thursday that it would sue Trump if he takes that action. “If this invocation of emergency on false pretenses is tolerated, it could justify almost limitless abuses of presidential and military power, including far-reaching clampdowns on civil rights,” the group said. Mark Rom, a Georgetown University professor, said that should the matter get to the U.S. Supreme Court, he wouldn’t expect the justices to “challenge the president’s ability to declare a national emergency.” “Now, on the question of whether the president’s claim that an emergency allows him to move the money around, it’s anyone’s guess just where the court might come down,” Rom said. “My expectation is this will play out like Trump’s initial travel ban: He will keep tinkering and keep tinkering until the courts decide it’s just within legal boundaries.” Trump’s power to declare the emergency stems from the 1976 National Emergencies Act, which “makes no attempt to dictate conditions for when this can be done, according to Bobby Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. Thus, if Trump wishes to state that the border is in such a state of disarray or exposure that it constitutes a national emergency under the NEA, he is mostly free to do so...MORE