Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz called President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to fund the construction of a barrier along hundreds of miles of the U.S.-Mexico border a “mistake,” citing the expected onslaught of legal challenges.
“There will be a lawsuit. No doubt about it. It will be tied up in the courts for a long time. Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to decide. And it’s unclear how the court will decide because it’s a new Supreme Court,” Dershowitz told John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York.
Dershowitz noted that past presidents have invoked emergencies. “Franklin Delano Roosevelt did it when he locked up 110,000 Japanese-Americans in detention centers — improperly in my view. Harry Truman did it when he seized the steel mills. He was reversed by the Supreme Court,” Dershowitz said.
Turning to Trump’s emergency declaration, Dershowitz said, “My own view is that it was a mistake to do it. I think emergencies are things that happened suddenly. The problems with immigration are long-term.”
“The Constitution requires that all spending bills originate in the House of Representatives,” he added. “This is a way of circumventing that provision of the constitution.”
Trump declared a national emergency Friday to fund a border wall after Democrats in Congress provided just $1.375 billion for fencing along a 55-mile stretch, much less than the $5.7 billion Trump sought for 234 miles of wall. The White House said the emergency declaration was needed only to redirect $3.6 billion in military construction funds, and that Trump would redirect about $600 million from the Treasury Department’s forfeiture fund and about $2.5 billion from Defense Department anti-drug activities without using emergency powers.
White House adviser Stephen Miller defended the actions of his boss in an interview Sunday, telling “Fox News Sunday” that Congress “didn’t refuse to appropriate” southern border wall funds even if lawmakers refused to fund the project.
“They passed a law specifically saying the president could have this authority,” Miller argued.
