Taking Preemptive Action

Good:

Congressional Democrats have a way to potentially stop President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency without going to court, and they’re planning to use it.

As part of the National Emergencies Act of 1976, the law that details the president’s ability to make emergency declarations, there’s also a legislative check that’s given to Congress. After the president declares an emergency, Congress can pass a resolution that terminates it. House Democrats, led by Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-TX), have introduced this very measure, and the House is set to vote on it on Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also said lawmakers plan to introduce a companion bill in the upper chamber.
Democrats argue that Trump’s declaration of a national emergency — something he did to try to obtain funding for his border wall after those funds had already been authorized for other projects — completely bypasses Congress and its ability to allocate funding, as designated by the Constitution.

Presidents have historically had a wide berth when it comes to using the powers they are granted during national emergencies. It’s relatively unprecedented, however, for the president to explicitly use one to get money for a project after Congress has declined to fund that exact endeavor.

Pelosi emphasized this point in a letter she sent to colleagues on Wednesday, noting that the emergency declaration “undermines the separation of powers and Congress’s power of the purse, a power exclusively reserved by the text of the Constitution the first branch of government, the Legislative branch, a branch co-equal to the Executive.”

Passing this is worth doing. Either the Senate passes it and forces Trump to veto it draw more attention to his very unpopular national emergency declaration, or you tie Republican senators further to an unpopular action of an unpopular president. And, in addition, Democrats really have to get used to not being able to count on a more and more Trumpified federal judiciary to check any Republican government.