BORDER/CONGRESS/HOUSE OF REPS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “A bipartisan group of more than 100 former members of the House of Representatives filed a court brief Tuesday [5-7-19] in a case challenging the President’s national emergency declaration. The case, brought by the House of Representatives, seeks to block President Donald Trump from circumventing Congress to fund his signature border wall…Among the points laid out in the brief, the former lawmakers refute the idea that there’s a national emergency at the southern border. “Emergencies are sudden and immediate, not longstanding and static,” the brief says, noting that Trump had called for a wall dating back to the start of his campaign in 2015. Among those who joined the briefing today are former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt and two former House members and Secretaries of Defense Bill Cohen and Leon Panetta. A day earlier, eight former House general counsels who served under both Republican and Democratic speakers over the past four decades filed an amicus brief in the case. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The Justice Department’s response to the suit is due Wednesday [5-8-19].”
–Priscilla Alvarez, “Former House members oppose President’s emergency declaration for wall in new court filing,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 7, 2019 10:37 pm