Judge Nap: The Emergency Declaration Doesn’t Allow Trump to Take Property or Spend Money that Congress Hasn’t Authorized

EXCERPT:

NAPOLITANO: “And according to Congressman Will Hurd, Republican of Texas, through whose district most of the wall would go, most of the property the federal government doesn’t own so they have to condemn it and pay for it. He can’t do that without congressional authorization. He can’t spend money without congressional authorization. The emergency declaration, and he has to make the case for it tonight, otherwise the courts will second-guess him, the emergency declaration allows him to mobilize assets, but it doesn’t allow him to take or occupy property and doesn’t allow him to spend money that Congress hasn’t authorized. Think about it. If the President, frustrated by Congress could declare a national emergency and go around Congress, we would have seen this before. Barack Obama would have declared a national emergency on healthcare and started spending money on insurance policies to keep people healthy, and obviously he didn’t because he couldn’t."