Trump Has Emergency Powers We Aren't Allowed to Know About.... Discuss

[Alex4Martinez]

Trump Has Emergency Powers We Aren’t Allowed to Know About

Given that they could make their first appearance in the coronavirus crisis, Congress should insist on having full access to them.

By Elizabeth Goitein and Andrew Boyle
Ms. Goitein and Mr. Boyle work at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

April 10, 2020

The past few weeks have given Americans a crash course in the powers that federal, state and local governments wield during emergencies. We’ve seen businesses closed down, citizens quarantined and travel restricted. When President Trump declared emergencies on March 13 under both the Stafford Act and the National Emergencies Act, he boasted, “I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.”

The president is right. Some of the most potent emergency powers at his disposal are likely ones we can’t know about, because they are not contained in any publicly available laws. Instead, they are set forth in classified documents known as “presidential emergency action documents.”

These documents consist of draft proclamations, executive orders and proposals for legislation that can be quickly deployed to assert broad presidential authority in a range of worst-case scenarios. They are one of the government’s best-kept secrets. No presidential emergency action document has ever been released or even leaked. And it appears that none has ever been invoked.

Given the real possibility that these documents could make their first appearance in the coronavirus crisis, Congress should insist on having full access to them to ensure that they are consistent with the Constitution and basic principles of democracy.



https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/opinion/trump-coronavirus-emergency-powers.html

[Hoyt]

1. I am definitely concerned about trump, but with any other Prez, I'm glad to

see people have been thinking about situations where a Prez might have to do things unimaginable to us at this moment. trump is that exception that particularly worries me.

[FBaggins]

2. Proclamation and executive orders do not grant new powers...

“Proposed legislation” obviously gives him even less... unless Congress passes that legislation.

[cayugafalls]

3. Now he is talking about being able to reopen the country.

And how his power is total.

What does he know that we don't? Is he thinking of using some PEAD power that has never been used before?

I would not put it past him to try and use any and all available means to assert his power as leader of the United States.

This is another great article on Presidential Emergency Action Documents.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/

I believe he is contemplating using the powers granted in those PEADs.

[Alex4Martinez]

5. Thank you for the link to the Atlantic article.

He's up to something.

[Turbineguy]

4. We've been on double-secret probation since November.

[Alex4Martinez]

6. PS: This Atlantic Youtube discusses extraordinary powers granted by Congress:

Shut down the Internet? Check.
Deploy troops into the US? Check.