Radio Recap: First Lawsuit Filed Against National Emergency

The President declared a national emergency on Friday, and later that day the first lawsuit was filed seeking to block the declaration. Now the ACLU and the State of California are both threating to file lawsuits.

On today’s broadcast we discussed lawsuits that have been filed and preparing to be filed to block President Trump’s declaration of a nation emergency in order to secure our southern border.

Currently there are 31 national emergencies that have been declared going back to President Jimmy Carter, some of which are still ongoing despite the conflict having ended.

In order to file these lawsuits, the plaintiffs in these cases must have legal standing, meaning that they must prove that the border will adversely impact them directly. The goal of these lawsuits is not to raise a constitutional question; rather it is to simply stop a policy they do not like.

In our view these lawsuits lack standing. In fact, they also lack justiciability. It is not within the purview of the court to substitute its judgement for what it sees as a national emergency from that of the President.

As ACLJ Senior Counsel Andy Ekonomou explained on the program today:

The Declaration of a National Emergency under the Federal Code is given exclusively to the President. It says in the period of a national emergency, during that time, any special or extraordinary power of the President is authorized to declare such national emergency, period. Now, who makes that determination? Congress has said it’s an Executive determination and is made by the President.

Democrats in the House of Representatives are now preparing to introduce a resolution disapproving of the President’s  use of a National Emergency to build the wall. Congress gave the President this power when they passed the law in 1976 and they have the power to repeal the law if they want to. If Congress believes the President should not have this power, it  could repeal the law.

You can read the ACLJ’s legal analysis of the President’s authority to declare a national emergency here.

We also provided an update on the work we are doing and preparing to do regarding the imprisonment of Pastor Cao in China.

Over the next four weeks we will be meeting with Congress, the Administration, highlighting his case at an International Religious Freedom Conference on China, and then Pastor Cao’s wife will be delivering an oral intervention in Geneva at the 40th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. We have also referred his case to the U.N. working group on Arbitrary Detention and we will be following up with that as well.

Pastor Cao has appealed his wrongful conviction but the court is continuing to delay his appeal hearing which has now been delayed nine months, with the deadline now being set for March 22. It is critical that we remain persistent in engaging with the international community. You can sign our petition for his release here.