One of the top constitutional law experts in the country is backing President Trump’s executive powers to restart shuttered local economies against the wishes of state lawmakers.
On Tuesday, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who led Trump’s Senate impeachment defense, said the president “has ultimate authority when it comes to reopening.”
“When you get to national emergencies, viruses that obviously don’t recognize borders and highly communicable diseases, the president’s power becomes great,” Dershowitz told Just The News.
As state governments consider reopening their economies during the coronavirus pandemic, the question of how much power the president wields over local lawmakers has drawn fierce debate. On April 13, Trump said he had “total” authority to decide when states will reopen for business, a claim which was criticized.
In a Wall Street Journal article published on Wednesday, however, lawyers David Rivkin and Lee Casey argued the president has “vast” executive power based on the 1950 Defense Production Act, which arms “the president with an array of authorities to shape national defense preparedness programs and to take appropriate steps to maintain and enhance the domestic industrial base.”
Rivkin and Casey noted the DPA allows the president to order state industries to reopen under loosely defined national defense language in the legislation.
“Although the president lacks plenary power to ‘restart’ the economy, he has formidable authority to eliminate restraints states have imposed on certain types of critical commercial activity,” added the attorneys.
Dershowitz pointed to former presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, who overstepped constitutional boundaries during times of crisis.
“Believe me, the argument is going to be made, that the economy is part of our national security and that a pandemic threatens our national security,” Dershowitz said. “So, you know, national security doesn’t only mean war.”
