Gary Hart, the former U.S. Senator from Colorado and a former presidential candidate, has said, “We have recently come to learn of at least a hundred documents authorizing extraordinary presidential powers in the case of a national emergency, virtually dictatorial powers without congressional or judicial checks and balances.” And this March President Donald Trump bragged, “I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” [1]
According to Hart, “What little we know about these secret powers comes from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School, but we believe they may include suspension of habeas corpus, surveillance, home intrusion, arrest without a judicial warrant, collective if not mass arrests and more; some could violate constitutional protections.”[2]
Hart, therefore, presses for an investigation and public disclosure of such powers. Indeed, he says, “public hearings should be held before the November elections, especially with rumors rife that the incumbent president might interfere with the election or refuse to accept the result if he felt in jeopardy of losing.”
“The most obvious first question is why these far-reaching powers are kept secret, not only from Congress but also from the American people. The second question is why they are necessary at all. And ultimately, should not there be permanent congressional oversight of any suggestion for calling these powers into operation? Under what dire conditions should our system of checks and balances among the executive, legislative and judicial branches be abandoned in favor of a dictatorship? And once a dictatorship is declared, what would be required to return us to our historic democratic system of government?”
Hart’s concern is made even more pressing by the recent disclosure that the Trump Administration is collaborating with attorney and law professor John Yoo on his expansive view of presidential power to rule by executive order.[3]
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[1] Hart, How Powerful Is the President?, N.Y. Times (July 23, 2020).
[2] Brennan Center for Justice, Emergency Powers. presid
[3] President Trump Prepares To Rule by Decree, dwkcommentariews.com (July 23, 2020).
