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5 tweets,
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Trump just basically announced that he would declare an emergency in 3 weeks if Congress doesn't give him what he wants. Let me count how many things are wrong with that. 1/5
If you can wait three weeks, it's not an emergency. 2/5
If Congress has time to act, there is no justification for using emergency powers. The whole purpose of these powers is to give the president access to standby authorities (passed by Congress in advance) in situations where Congress has no time to act. 3/5
If Congress has time to act *and* decides against funding the wall, declaring an emergency to build one anyway is a massive abuse of power and quite likely a violation of the Constitution. 4/5
Every time the president announces that he'll declare an emergency only if Congress doesn't give him what he wants, he makes it about 10 times more likely that lawsuits challenging the declaration will succeed. 5/5
