Author: John Fritze / Source: USA TODAY
President Donald Trump says the wall he envisions in some places along the southern border would be harder to scale than Mount Everest. He says the wall is “very, very on its way” and says people will have to be very fit to scale it. (Feb. 13) AP
WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump declares a national emergency to free up funding for his border wall he will follow a long line of presidents dating back to George Washington who have relied on emergency authority to achieve a goal.
But experts say national emergencies have rarely been used in the way Trump intends.
Trump is expected to declare an emergency as early as Friday as a mechanism to unlock pots of federal money he can then use to build portions of a border barrier, a central promise of his 2016 campaign. He will also sign a bipartisan bill that sets aside $1.375 billion for barriers, far short of the $5.7 billion he has demanded.
Presidential emergencies often lead to bitter partisan disputes and occasionally wind up in court, but they are relatively common. The United States is already subject to more than 30 national emergencies, including one signed in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter days after the Iranian hostage crisis began.
“They’re declared for all kinds of things,” said Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values. “They’re absolutely common, which is why nobody blinks an eye about the whole thing – and then you get a case like this.”
Since 1976, when Congress passed the National Emergencies Act, presidents have declared at least 58 states of emergency – not counting disaster declarations for weather events, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice. Dozens remain in effect, extended by subsequent presidents.
The Militia Acts of 1792 gave Washington authority to take over state militias during the Whiskey Rebellion. In perhaps the best-known use of emergency powers from history, President Abraham Lincoln established a blockade on the ports of Southern states and suspended habeas corpus without congressional approval.
In modern times, presidents have far more frequently used emergency powers to impose sanctions. They have sometimes used them to seize property and call up the National Guard.
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