Donald Trump knew when he made the decision to sign a declaration of national emergency in order to get around Congress for his border wall funds that he would be sued, and he also knows that the move is nothing more than symbolic. In addition to lawsuits already announced by the ACLU and an advocacy group formed by Texas landowners named Public Citizen, five states have signed on to a lawsuit against Trump.
NEW: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says the state will file a lawsuit “definitely and imminently” against the Trump administration over the president's recent national emergency declaration. https://t.co/lASC3jt1A4 pic.twitter.com/f8Q4TdYzOX
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 17, 2019
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra: "It's become clear that this is not an emergency, not only because no one believes it is, but because Donald Trump himself has said it's not." https://t.co/LEm5HAP9a0 pic.twitter.com/Io6PRa0BlE
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 17, 2019
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra appeared on ABC’s This Week on Sunday and told Martha Raddatz that California will “definitely and imminently” be filing a lawsuit against the White House over the emergency declaration.
‘We are prepared. We knew something like this might happen, and with our sister state partners, we are ready to go.’
Those sister state partners include New Mexico, Oregon, Hawaii and Minnesota. Two of the five states share a border with Mexico and the state governments of both disagree that any national emergency exists at the southern border, nor do many people believe that a border wall would be at all effective in stopping the emergency Trump says is happening.
Since Trump declared a national emergency at the border, he has:
—Golfed twice.
—Attacked the press.
—Pushed conspiracies about Robert Mueller.
—Tweeted about his approval ratings.
—Complained about SNL.
—Promoted a video mocking Democrats in Congress.So much for a crisis.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 17, 2019
One issue with the lawsuit from these five states is the lack of specificity in the laws regarding what constitutes a national emergency. It’s doubtful that when the laws were written anyone expected a Donald Trump to come along and sit in the highest position of power in the country. Raddatz asked Becerra how the lawsuit plans to address this problem.
‘Where do you believe he’s really overstepped his bounds, given this very vague law?’
Becerra answered that Trump unwittingly had already made their case for them when he told the American people that he didn’t “need to do this [declare an emergency]” but that he wanted to get it done “faster.”
‘Well, he himself said it. He did not need to announce or declare a crisis. He did not have to call this an emergency.’
This must be one of the clips on Saturday Night Live that is making Trump so upset like a petulant dictator. It’s about his fake national emergency declaration and Trump is literally at Mar-a-Lago probably tweeting on the toilet before another day of golf. pic.twitter.com/v44rdCyBFV
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) February 17, 2019
The lawsuits are a self-fulfilling prophecy. During Trump’s announcement of the emergency declaration, he predicted he would be sued but said that he hoped to prevail once the lawsuit reaches the Supreme Court.
‘We will have a national emergency, and then we will then be sued, and they will sue us in the 9th Circuit, even though it shouldn’t be there. And we will possibly get a bad ruling, and then we’ll get another bad ruling. And then we’ll end up in the Supreme Court, and hopefully we’ll get a fair shake. And we’ll win in the Supreme Court, just like the [travel] ban.’
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
