As we await President Trump’s prime-time speech on Tuesday night, one open question remains about whether he’s going to pitch the possibility of declaring a “national emergency” to justify appropriating the military to build a border wall. I’ve already explained why I think such an action would be dangerous, but it’s also worth taking a moment to consider the politics of such a maneuver.

In a analysis that appeared in the New York Times in which Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman mainly focuses on the legal implications of such a move, he notes that under the 1976 National Emergencies Act:

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