Nancy Pelosi Has A ‘Compelling Case’ Against Trump, Says Legal Expert
Laurence Tribe, a lawyer, Constitutional scholar, and Professor at the Harvard Law School, said on Saturday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a “compelling case” against President Trump, Raw Story reports.
“Speaker Pelosi shouldn’t hesitate to take Trump to court. She’ll have a compelling case,” he said.
As detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, on February 16, Donald Trump declared a national emergency. The decision, although not unexpected, came after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and amid intense — albeit unproductive — bipartisan negotiations.
The negotiations failed, and the president declared a national emergency, prompting widespread criticism. Even some of Trump’s Republican colleagues openly expressed concern, arguing that the order sets a dangerous precedent that could potentially be abused in the future.
The controversial decision is already being challenged in courts. Public Citizens, a liberal advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, questioning the legality of declaring a national emergency and describing the president’s actions as unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed on Friday on behalf of three Texas landowners and the Frontera Audubon Society.
In a series of social media posts, Tribe addressed the legality of Donald Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency in an effort to allocate funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to Law professor Lawrence Tribe, President Trump declared a national emergency in order to circumvent Congress and seize more executive power. The professor described Trump’s order as “grossly abusive and blatantly lawless,” arguing that the president cannot be allowed to get away with bypassing Congress in such a way.
First lawsuit filed to block Trump's national emergency declaration https://t.co/AtycuibrIu pic.twitter.com/PE9YxoRsxi
— The Hill (@thehill) February 17, 2019
The biggest legal weakness in Donald Trump’s decision is, according to Tribe, that none of the laws his emergency order triggers authorize constructing a border wall.
“No emergency, for sure. But it turns out the biggest legal weakness in Trump’s defense is that none of the federal laws his so-called ’emergency’ declaration triggers actually authorizes constructing even one mile of his wall! Guess he didn’t get around to reading the statutes!”
The House of Representatives — headed by Nancy Pelosi — has a standing to sue Donald Trump, according to Tribe.
It remains to be seen whether or not Pelosi will sue Trump, but Tribe’s comments came following a Twitter statement by the House Speaker in which she described Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency as unconstitutional, vowing that Congress will fight the president every step of the way.
“The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public, using every remedy available,” House Speaker Pelosi said.
