Supreme Court Precedent Blocks Trump’s “National Emergency” Wall

Whenever Donald Trump manages to control more than one 24-hour news cycle with something baseless and idiotic, I can’t help but wonder: What is he trying to draw attention away from? His failure to get his wall built by legal means through Congress? Investigations into his behavior? His health/mental health? A “secret” plan to take over Venezuela to get its oil? Some other personal Trumpian shocker the public has never even had wind of yet?

Trump also has an extremely predictable habit of “floating” ideas to see what sticks or what flails, as in: ranting lies about immigration statistics that actually inflame his base, or attacking a freshman congressperson over a tweet which only makes Trump look like more of an idiot hypocrite.

If I had to guess, I’d suspect that, in part, Trump pre-announced his intentions to declare a national emergency to get his wall built in order to draw the news cycle away from detailing over and over again how badly he came out of his “standoff” over wall budgeting and his complete inadequacy to get the wall built when there was $25B budgeted for it and republicans controlled the entire political system.

Anyway, he obviously wanted to shake the tree and see what falls out before he actually takes action. Why “obviously?” Because he stood outside the White House Friday morning to give a press announcement/conference rambling about his authority (but not actual need) to declare a national emergency to get his wall built. He also stated clearly more than once that he intends to sign the national emergency declaration “as soon as I’m back in the oval office.” Trump must have walked straight from that press conference to a helicopter to go on vacation for the weekend, because if he had gone back into the White House, he would have signed that declaration as soon as he was back in the oval office (which is how many feet from the presidential residence?).

What’s that, you say? Trump didn’t leave for his resort until late Friday afternoon? Well, gee, I wonder why he didn’t sign that declaration before he left for the long weekend?

He didn’t do it because he wants to see the fallout before he actually takes action that could lead to said fallout. And fallout there has been. First there were all the lawsuits filed/announced from both states and private citizens. Today there will be even more, from what I hear. More than 20,000 protestors are participating in more than 200 demonstrations across the country today. All that should get at least a little media attention, and give Trump his forecast of what to expect if he actually signs the declaration when he’s back in the oval office on Tuesday. But I don’t expect the corporate media to mention what seems to me the most obvious reason Trump won’t get his wall this way: Supreme Court precedent stands against him.

I have to agree with the legal eagles like Doug Mataconis (https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/mcconnell-warns-trump-against-declaring-national-emergency-over-wall/) that point out: Supreme Court legal precedent is against Trump on this one, and the President’s power to act in a supposed “emergency” is most surely limited by legal precedent as well as the Constitution.

In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer 343 U.S. 579 (1952), the Supreme Court ruled against President Truman’s use of a national emergency injunction to force steel mills to keep running during the Korean War (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/343/579/). The Supreme Court ruled against President Truman and nullified his emergency orders. The Court ruled that the president had acted improperly in that the president did not have the Constitutional authority to declare a national emergency in order to seize private property (the steel mills). Nor did he have the authorization from Congress to take such an action.

Trump’s “National Emergency” for getting his wall built includes a fairly massive land grab, taking away property from private citizens in order to build Trump’s wall on it. So, there is a direct application of the 1952 Supreme Court ruling. The legal precedent was established years ago, by the Supreme Court no less, and that precedent stands against Trump’s “National Emergency.”

With such clear legal precedent blocking the way of Trump’s Wall, which suggests to me that Trump made his announcement as a political stunt, my mind automatically jumps to the same question that always hits me after Trump makes some big (and untrue/impossible) statement to the press: what is he drawing corporate media’s attention away from?

Here’s the actual text from the Supreme Court ruling [emphasis added]:

Page 343 U. S. 580
2. The Executive Order was not authorized by the Constitution or laws of the United States, and it cannot stand. Pp. 343 U. S. 585-589.
(a) There is no statute which expressly or impliedly authorizes the President to take possession of this property as he did here. Pp. 343 U. S. 585-586.
(b) In its consideration of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, Congress refused to authorize governmental seizures of property as a method of preventing work stoppages and settling labor disputes. P. 343 U. S. 586.
(c) Authority of the President to issue such an order in the circumstances of this case cannot be implied from the aggregate of his powers under Article II of the Constitution. Pp. 343 U. S. 587-589.
(d) The Order cannot properly be sustained as an exercise of the President’s military power as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. P. 343 U. S. 587.
(e) Nor can the Order be sustained because of the several provisions of Article II which grant executive power to the President. Pp. 343 U. S. 587-589.