BORDER/CONGRESS/LEGAL/NATIONAL SECURITY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Trump’s quest to build a wall on the southern border has escalated to considering declaring a national emergency. It’s being reported the administration is looking to declare the emergency, then move around money already appropriated to the Pentagon by cancelling some other construction projects so that construction at the border can start. The emergency declaration threat would most assuredly be challenged in the courts for things like abuse of power, but does it matter? ‘One question is what is he going to declare an emergency to do we’re all assuming it’s to build some sort of barrier whether it’s his steel slats or his concrete wall or some combination of the two. I’m not sure that simply declaring the emergency is something that you’re ever gonna be able to successfully challenged in court,’ POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein said. Whatever possible legal recourse that Congress or another group might pursue, this kind of declaration would surely have some serious political impacts later on.”
–Eugene Daniels, “The legality behind President Trump’s national security threat,” Politico, January 9, 2019 2:28 pm