Explainer: Trump's emergency threat on wall risks dual legal challenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump would almost certainly face a legal challenge if he carries out his threat to get funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall by declaring a national emergency and circumventing Congress’s purse-strings power.
Legal scholars said it was unclear exactly how such a step would play out, but they agreed that a court test would likely focus on whether an emergency actually exists on the southern border and on the limits of presidential power over taxpayer funds.
Declaring an emergency would likely end a 17-day-old partial government shutdown. But it could also result in a long court fight, possibly stretching into Trump’s 2020 reelection bid and emboldening critics who accuse him of authoritarian tendencies.
Trump has triggered a partial shutdown of the government by demanding the inclusion of $5 billion for his proposed wall in any legislation to fully reopen agencies whose funding expired on Dec. 22.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-emergency-explainer/explainer-trumps-emergency-threat-on-wall-risks-dual-legal-challenge-idUSKCN1P11ZC
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