airplanemechanic
Diamond Member
- Nov 8, 2014
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Trump can invoke National War Time Powers that he has been given the right to do by the governors in order to receive their emergency funding.This has nothing to do with the emergency defense act. This has to do with the president over riding the governors of individual states that were shut down by the governor of those states. Not the president. And Trump cannot do that.
Right now Trump has the powers of a dictator, whether he uses them or not.
Firstly, he has a huge carrot and a big stick to 'encourage' governors comply.
It’s not clear that public health fits in this “primary responsibility” category. The Stafford Act has occasionally been used to address local, and very expensive, public health concerns — from New York’s toxic Love Canal in the 1970s to Flint’s drinking water crisis a few years ago. (For those inclined to look back, there was also the Louisiana “chlorine barge incident” in 1962.) But apparently the only time the Stafford Act was used to combat a contagious disease was to help New York and New Jersey kill mosquitoes after West Nile virus outbreaks there in the summer of 2000. That, of course, fell far short of a national invocation — and amounted to a total of about $7 million in federal aid.Presumably today’s emergency will be rather more expensive, drawing tens of billions of dollars from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund. More broadly, an emergency declaration allows the president to, among other things, provide emergency assistance through federal agencies and indeed todirect any Federal agency, with or without reimbursement, to utilize its authorities and the resources granted to it under Federal law … in support of State and local emergency assistance efforts to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, and lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe, including precautionary evacuations.The Stafford Act specifically authorizes housing assistance, which is obviously needed when people are displaced by natural disasters. It lets the feds help state and local governments “in the distribution of medicine, food, and other consumable supplies, and emergency assistance.” Further, it allows the IRS to defer collecting taxes from affected individuals, relief specified in the president’s letter invoking the emergency....The key actors in the Stafford Act are the states. Even where the law, in Section 502(a)(8), allows for “accelerated Federal assistance and Federal support where necessary to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate severe damage, which may be provided in the absence of a specific [state] request,” it goes on to say the federal government must coordinate with the state as quickly as possible.Which is one reason we may wind up not with two declarations but 52 (or more) — the Trump administration has also encouraged state governors to request “major disaster” declarations under the Stafford Act. Presumably, with federal funds at the ready, governors will be happy to oblige.
He also has direct authority most expanded but some newly established by Obama.
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Martial Law by Executive Order
At one level, the prospect for war with Iran is probably an immediate justification. But the comprehensiveness of the Executive Order, like that of the 2012 NDAA, speaks to something much deeper.www.huffpost.com
In the NDAA, only the president had the authority to abrogate legitimate freedoms of U.S. citizens. What is extraordinary in the new Executive Order is that this supreme power is designated through the president to the secretaries that run the Government itself:• The Secretary of Defense has power over all water resources;• The Secretary of Commerce has power over all material services and facilities, including construction materials;• The Secretary of Transportation has power over all forms of civilian transportation;• The Secretary of Agriculture has power over food resources and facilities, livestock plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment;• The Secretary of Health and Human Services has power over all health resources;• The Secretary of Energy has power over all forms of energy.The Executive Order even stipulates that in the event of conflict between the secretaries in using these powers, the president will determine the resolution through his national security team.The 2012 NDAA gave the Government the right to abrogate any due process against a U.S. citizen. The new Executive Order gives the government, through the Secretary of Labor, the right to proactively mobilize U.S. citizens for “labor” as the government deems necessary and to coordinate with the Secretary of Defense to maintain data to coordinate the nation’s work needs in relation to national defense.What is extraordinary about the Executive Order is that, like the NDAA, this can all be done in peacetime without any national emergency to justify it. The language of the Order does not state that all these extraordinary measures will be done in the event of “national security” or a “national emergency.” They can simply be done for “purposes of national defense,” clearly a broader remit that allows the government to do what it wants, when it wants, how it wants, to whomever it wants, all without any judicial restraint or due process. As Orwell famously said in 1984, “War is peace. Peace is war.” This is now the reality on the ground in America.Finally, the 2012 NDAA was hurried through the House and Senate almost like a covert op with minimal public attention or debate. It was then signed by the president at 9:00 PM on New Year’s Eve while virtually nobody was paying attention to much other than the approaching new year. This new Executive Order was written and signed in complete secret and then quietly released by the White House on its website without comment. All this was done under a president who studied constitutional law at Harvard.
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Executive Order -- National Defense Resources Preparedness
EXECUTIVE ORDER NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESSobamawhitehouse.archives.gov
Sec. 502. Consultants. The head of each agency otherwise delegated functions under this order is delegated the authority of the President under sections 710(b) and (c) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2160(b), (c), to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation and to employ experts, consultants, or organizations. The authority delegated by this section may not be redelegated.
For Christs Sake, Trump can order the Governor of New Jersey to work for him if he wanted to, lol, and at ZERO compensation.
Let that sink in.
That's a whole bunch of bullhonkey that has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
No, Trump cannot force the states to open.
"The Constitution’s grant of limited, enumerated powers to the national government does not include the right to regulate either public health or all business in the land. Congress enjoys the authority to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States.”
As the Supreme Court has recognized, safeguarding public health and safety presents the most compelling use of state power. Only the states can impose quarantines, close institutions and businesses, and limit intra-state travel. Democratic governors Gavin Newsom in California, Andrew Cuomo in New York, and J.B. Pritzker Illinois imposed their states’ lockdowns, and only they will decide when the draconian policies will end.
Congress can control commerce that crosses state lines, and even prohibit wholly intrastate activity that affects the national markets. It cannot, however, force individuals and businesses to engage in business in the first place."
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No, Trump Can’t Force States to Reopen | National Review
The Constitution reserves police powers for the states. The president will have to make do with persuasion.
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