The Atlantic

There’s a Way for Democrats to Sue Trump—Thanks to the Republicans

A lawsuit to block the border wall could go the route the House GOP took in 2014 to challenge Obamacare.
Source: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

As the partial shutdown of the federal government has stretched to 25 days, Democrats are mulling a possible lawsuit: If Donald Trump declares a national emergency and reappropriates funding for his proposed border wall from other departments, as he has suggested he might do, they would almost certainly challenge that action in court. “Look, an emergency cannot be whatever a president says an emergency is,” Jamie Raskin, a former law professor and representative from Maryland, told The Washington Post. If there’s a legal question about Trump’s next steps, he said, “we’re very happy to relocate it from the halls of Congress into the courts.”

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