Donald Trump appears He will dream of becoming an American authoritarian if he returns to the presidency. The former US president, who on Tuesday secured enough delegates to win the 2024 Republican nomination, plans to deport millions of illegal immigrants and hold many of them in large camps. He wants to use the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to cities across the country to quell civil unrest. He wants to prosecute his political opponents. A coordinated and well-funded effort is underway to replace career federal government employees with Trump supporters who will follow President Trump's orders and help consolidate their power.
But what also worries legal experts is that it would give him special powers that have been granted to recent presidents but not commonly used. If President Trump decides to become a complete authoritarian, he could use so-called “emergency powers” to shut down the Internet in specific areas, censor the Internet, freeze people's bank accounts, restrict transportation, etc. There is sex.
Laws such as the National Emergencies Act, the Communications Act of 1934, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) will allow him to wield power in ways the country has never seen before. Moreover, America's vast surveillance state has been regularly exploited and could theoretically be exploited even further to monitor perceived political opponents.
“Emergency powers for surveillance don't really exist because non-emergency powers are so powerful and give the executive branch such broad powers. You don't need emergency powers for that.” said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
But Goitein says her biggest concern is what the president can do with the emergency powers he has been given, especially when he thinks the president might decide to act like an authoritarian. The laws surrounding these powers provide little opportunity for other branches of government to prevent the president from doing whatever he wants, she says.
“Emergency powers are intended to give the President special powers that can be used in extraordinary circumstances. Because they provide these very powerful powers, they must have checks and balances built in to prevent abuse. It’s important,” says Goitein. “The problem with the current emergency power system is that it's made up of different laws, but there's a real lack of checks and balances.”
Under the National Emergencies Act, for example, the president can invoke powers contained in more than 130 different legal provisions simply by declaring some type of national emergency. What constitutes an actual emergency is not defined in these laws, so President Trump could come up with any number of reasons for declaring an emergency, and there was no easy way to stop him from abusing this power.
“The Communications Act of 1934 has a provision that allows the President to close or requisition telecommunications facilities in a state of national emergency. There is a provision that gives the President almost unspecified authority over domestic transportation, which is very broad. “It can be interpreted as follows,” Goitein said. “The IEEPA allows the president to freeze the assets and block financial transactions of any person, including U.S. persons, if the president deems it necessary to address an unusual threat that emanates, at least in part, from abroad. .”