Trump just declared another national emergency. The “emergency” in question is – wait for it – the efforts of the International Criminal Court to hold U.S. personnel accountable for alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, including torture of detainees at black sites. 1/15
The declaration freezes U.S.-based assets of any foreign ICC personnel who try to exercise jurisdiction over U.S. war crimes, & anyone who assists them. Also, Americans face criminal penalties if they have any financial transactions with such people. 2/15 publicpool.kinja.com/subject-execut…
This is a grotesque abuse of emergency powers, on par with the president’s declaration of a national emergency to secure funding that Congress had denied for building a border wall along the southern border. 3/15
Trump asserts that the ICC’s attempt to exercise jurisdiction over U.S. personnel is illegitimate, because the U.S. hasn’t consented to that jurisdiction. In fact, the ICC is asserting jurisdiction, not over U.S. personnel, but over war crimes committed in Afghanistan… 4/15
…and Afghanistan has provided the necessary consent. Not to mention the fact that war crimes constitute serious crimes against customary international law, which means that courts have “universal jurisdiction” over those crimes (that was the basis for the Nuremberg trials). 5/15
But that’s not even the real issue here. The question of whether the ICC can legitimately prosecute U.S. war crimes is different from the question of whether attempting to do so constitutes a “national emergency” and an “unusual and extraordinary threat." 6/15
Let’s be very clear: however Trump tries to frame this, he is saying that the prospect of U.S. personnel being held accountable for war crimes is a *national emergency.* (The war crimes themselves? Not so much.) 7/15
It’s particularly galling because the U.S. uses this particular emergency power – the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – to impose sanctions on foreign government officials who engage in human rights violations. 8/15
When other governments violate human rights, that’s a national emergency. When the U.S. violates human rights in other countries, it’s a national emergency for those other countries to seek accountability. 9/15
Once again, Trump is flagrantly abusing the emergency powers Congress has delegated… and once again, his actions underscore the acute need to reform those powers. 10/15
Under the National Emergencies Act, Congress can terminate a declaration of national emergency only by passing a joint resolution signed by the president. In practice, that means it has to muster a veto-proof supermajority. 11/15
Moreover, IEEPA – one of the 120+ statutory powers that is triggered by a national emergency declaration – gives the president far too much discretion. He decides what constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat”… 12/15
…and once he designates such a threat, he can prohibit almost any financial transaction with anyone he designates as contributing to that threat. 13/15
The potential for abuse of this law is staggering. What has largely prevented such abuse, until now, is self-restraint on the part of past presidents. But it’s a huge mistake to rely on the executive branch to check itself – as we are learning every day. 14/15
Congress *must* revisit both the National Emergencies Act and IEEPA. The president’s abuse of emergency powers has itself become an emergency, and if Congress does not act soon, the situation will only get worse. 15/15
