Thousands of soldiers and law enforcement officers descended on the nation's capital. Steel fences encircled the White House. Heavily armed officers met protesters with flash-bang grenades and chemical agents.
"This president has indicated no respect for limitations on his authority," U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, told ABC News on Friday."What is he capable of? I think the answer is, pretty much anything."Presidents have imposed martial law -- giving military commanders the authority to make rules or take actions deemed necessary to restore order -- only rarely and in targeted ways over the course of the nation's history.
Trump's flexing has grown more frequent since early spring, when the nation was beset by a pandemic and then by mass demonstrations around the country. During an April 14 White House briefing, on one of the darkest days of the coronavirus outbreak, Trump made his views on the subject clear by discussing his desire to overrule governors on reopening their states.
Story continuesDuring one White House speech last week, Trump declared his intent to enlist the military to quell outbreaks of violence by invoking the rarely-used Insurrection Act of 1807. One reason for the alarm, several legal and constitutional scholars told ABC News, is that military control can be very hard to contain once the powers of civil control have been relinquished.
Dershowitz wrote that martial law can be invoked by the president -- or by a military commander -- only when he or she thinks it is necessary to prevent a total breakdown in society. And inside the White House, lawyers have quietly and vigorously been exploring the boundaries of presidential power and the extent to which it may be expanded, sources told ABC News.
Attorney General Bill Barr cited his role advising President Bush to make this decision during the riots, during an interview with CBS's"Face the Nation." Barr said he also believe the president would have the power to do so even if a governor of a particular state didn't request or approve the deployment, which he characterized as a"last resort" option.
He and other Trump critics told ABC News they learned enough from the episode to ask more about the White House thinking in case conditions worsen in the fall.While sources told ABC News that much of the legal work in the White House has centered on the response to coronavirus, and later the nationwide protests, one expert said there are longstanding blueprints for the president to assume more power during an emergency that date back to the Cold War and are revised periodically.
'New' concerns? Really?
Dominate says it all.
More Yahoo spinning the truth. Is Goebbels in charge? Their abuse of the truth is dangerous.
Yahoo's propaganda machine brings back memories of WWII.
Just can't help yourselves, can you? Uh boy 🙄
There's alot we need to learn and change about presidential powers and our government structure from the Trump presidency.
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