Is it true the United States has been under a “National Emergency” since 1933? According to some sources I’ve run across, every president (since the passage of the War Powers Act) has declared every year to be a National Emergency, thus providing a convenient way for the president to carry out Executive Orders which, by definition, do not require Congressional approval (and are Constitutionally questionable).
Crafter
Dayton, OH
{Sigh} Didn’t we just cover this during the Martial Law and Y2K discussions.
For the record, Executive Orders are not laws. They are orders from the President, as head of the Executive Branch, to his employees about how they will perform their duties.
Now, since part of the duty of the Executive Branch is to enforce the law, that gives the President some latitude to direct HOW the law is enforced. But not unlimited latitude.
Just to use a far-fetched example that has no grounds in reality: the President can say it’s okay to be a gay in the military, because he’s Commander in Chief. Congress can turn around and pass a law that says it’s not okay to be a gay in the military. The most the President could do in that situation is to tell military officials to quit asking people if they’re gay, and for people to quit saying they’re gay.
As far as whether we’ve been in a state of emergency since 1933, who cares? Long before then, the President was called on to “take care that the laws are faithfully executed.”