Latest news with #executiveAuthority
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Appeals Court to Consider Trump's Use of Alien Enemies Act
It is one of President Trump's most contentious assertions of executive authority: a proclamation, issued in March, calling on the powers of an 18th-century law to round up and deport scores of immigrants who he claimed were members of a Venezuelan street gang. That law, the Alien Enemies Act, had been used only three times before in U.S. history, all during periods of war. And the way Mr. Trump invoked it raised significant questions about whether he was complying with the statute's text. For more than three months, courts across the country have been struggling to answer those questions and decide whether the president had stretched the limits of the law in pursuing one of his central policy goals: the mass deportation of immigrants. On Monday, a federal appeals court in New Orleans will consider those questions, as well, in what is likely to be the decisive legal battle over Mr. Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act. The hearing, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, will almost certainly reprise legal arguments that the Trump administration and lawyers for the Venezuelan men have made repeatedly in lower courts. But the Fifth Circuit's case is likely to be the first to reach the Supreme Court, where it will get a full hearing on the substantive question of whether Mr. Trump has used the act unlawfully. Passed in 1798 as the nascent United States was threatened by war with France, the Alien Enemies Act gives the president expansive powers to detain and expel members of a hostile foreign nation. But the act grants those powers only in times of declared war or during what it describes as an invasion or a 'predatory incursion.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bloomberg
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Trump's Grip on LA Troops Faces Test in Appeals Court Ruling
President Donald Trump's continued use of California 's National Guard to respond to protests in Los Angeles faced fresh scrutiny on Tuesday in a high-stakes showdown over the limits of his executive authority. A three-judge panel in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments for lawyers from both the Justice Department and California over whether the president's deployment of the troops without the state's approval was illegal. The court is expected to rule quickly on whether to let Trump keep using the troops for now as the case plays out.
Fox News
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
REP TROY A CARTER SR: Trump's overuse of emergency powers is an abuse of power
In his first 100 days back in office, President Donald Trump has invoked emergency powers more times than any modern president — eight times, according to NPR's Kat Lonsdorf. From declaring a "national energy emergency" despite no fuel shortage, to labeling a longstanding trade deficit as a threat to national security, Trump is using emergency declarations not to address urgent crises — but to ram through his domestic agenda while bypassing Congress. Let's be clear: emergency powers were never meant to serve as policy shortcuts. Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice rightly notes these powers exist to give presidents temporary flexibility during true emergencies — not to rewrite policy on the fly. Yet Trump has now declared 21 national emergencies across two terms, nearly doubling the rate of his predecessors. Scholars like Princeton's Kim Lane Scheppele have sounded the alarm: this is "pedal to the metal on executive power." As someone who studies the erosion of democracies around the world, Scheppele warns this is the very path authoritarianism often takes — through unchecked executive authority masquerading as urgency. Equally concerning is the White House's open admission that it will push these legal boundaries all the way to the Supreme Court. If successful, the result could permanently upend the constitutional balance of powers and embolden future presidents — of any party — to rule by decree. As a U.S. congressman, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and an adjunct professor of Political Science at Xavier University of Louisiana, I take seriously my oath to defend the Constitution. I will continue fighting against this gross abuse of power and the flagrant disregard for the rule of law — the same rule of law that has safeguarded this nation from tyranny for nearly 250 years. The framers of our Constitution understood that emergency powers, if left unchecked, could be a fast track to despotism. That's why they designed a system of checks and balances — not a system of one-man rule. We must not abandon that legacy now.
