ORL Supports The Rule of Law, Opposes Authoritarian “National Emergencies”

The issue. President Donald Trump’s numerous declarations of national emergencies when there are none, his assaults on Constitutional rights and civil liberties, his disrespect for due process under the law, his decimation of experienced national security and military leadership with whom he disagrees, and his personal vendettas of retribution and revenge against his political opponents through the Department of Justice or other dubiously legal administrative actions are right out of the authoritarian’s playbook and must end. Many of the President’s extreme and authoritarian actions declaring national “emergencies” during the first six months of his second administration are not only contrary to the rule of law under our Constitution, but also dangerous to our liberal democratic values, our freedoms, and even our national security.

The New York Times recently conducted an extensive study of President Trump’s executive orders and other actions and found that he has used ten emergency declarations to justify hundreds of his executive actions without prior Congressional consultation or review. For example, the Times reporting found that the President used four separate declarations as the basis to invoke tariffs on U.S. trading partners, which has resulted in a global trade war the world has not seen since the 1930s after the Depression-era Smoot-Hawley tariffs.

In fact, there was no genuine “national emergency” on “Liberation Day” to justify Trump’s misguided tariffs, which are simply an indirect sales tax on all consumers and raise the cost of imported goods. Prices for cars, cell phones and other consumer goods with imported parts will  all rise.  President Trump has taxed them. Trade deficits between countries do not constitute an emergency under any definition of the word. They are simply an accounting tally based on millions of private sector commercial transactions between buyers and sellers across national borders during any given time period.

President Trump’s most recent Executive Order extending his self-determined “crime emergency” in the District of Columbia is another example of extreme Presidential action when there is no emergency by any conventional definition. Republicans used to believe in local control rather than federalization. The police power is a state and local issue unless there is a true national emergency.

In this case, major crime in the Nation’s capital has been on the decline in recent years. Nevertheless, Trump has now armed 2,200 National Guards in Washington, D.C. – with no training or experience in civilian law enforcement – to patrol the streets, after a similar move in Los Angeles and prospective moves in Chicago and Boston among other cities potentially in advance of next year’s elections. We are not and should never become a federal police state.

In a legally dubious and equally foreboding excerpt in his latest executive order, Trump commanded the Secretary of Defense to “immediately begin ensuring that each State’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard are resourced, trained, organized, and available to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate, as appropriate under law.” However, this purely political move is not appropriate under the law. Rather, it is a misuse of valuable resources to have U.S. military soldiers trained in modern warfare to defend against our foreign enemies to engage in the federal policing of civilian populations in the normal course of their daily lives.

ORL policy position. Our Republican Legacy supports the rule of law under the Constitution and opposes all authoritarian actions by the President to expand his political power at the expense of citizen’s rights and our civil liberties. We oppose false narratives of national emergencies that the President freely uses to promote unwarranted federal and executive overreach, advance his personal agenda, and avenge his political grievances.

Action required. Our Republican Legacy recommends four actions to support the rule of law and oppose the visible slide into Trump’s brand of authoritarianism under the guise of “national emergencies.”

First, the President and his White House officials must abide by the rule of law and cease and desist from all authoritarian acts. No more manufactured “national emergencies.”

Second, it is the responsibility and duty of every citizen to support the rule of law under our Constitution and peacefully oppose all authoritarian actions by any official at the national, state, and local levels.

Third, it is imperative for every part of the U. S. judicial system – especially the Supreme Court and federal judges under Article III of the Constitution – to resist political pressure or authoritarian entreaties from the Executive Branch and protect and defend the rule of law in a fair, impartial, and just manner.

Finally, when Congress returns into session in September, it must reclaim and reassert its constitutional authority under Article I as a separate and equal branch of government. Congress must provide the necessary check and balance against the power grabs of the Chief Executive that was envisioned by our nation’s founders.

Among other things, Congress must conduct immediate oversight of the President’s injudicious and unchallenged use of the National Emergencies Act and all other emergency laws to circumvent the legislative branch and legal, administrative procedures, which act as essential, due process guardrails against executive overreach. For example, Congress can start with taking back its Constitutional powers over trade and tariffs. President Trump’s financially destructive tariffs launched his global trade war under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which does even not mention the word “tariffs” and many legal experts believe is a blatantly illegal use of executive authority to promote higher taxes and a failed economic policy.