Nadler & Cohen Send Letter to Democratic Caucus on President Trump’s Assertion of “Total” Authority
“Whatever his purpose or ultimate plans, President Trump cannot ignore the structure of our Constitution and the basic checks and balances put in place by our Founders.”
Washington, D.C. — Following President Trump’s false assertion that he has “total” authority to “reopen the economy” and to order States to relax social distancing measures, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Chairman Steve Cohen (D-TN) sent a letter to the Democratic Caucus outlining the president’s actual legal and constitutional authority in this area.
In their letter, the Members wrote, “President Trump was doubly wrong to claim “total” authority to dictate States’ public health policies. Unsurprisingly, he cannot point to any specific law that supposedly gives him that power. Nor does it rest hidden somewhere in the Constitution. On the contrary, the Tenth Amendment makes clear that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.’”
Full text of the letter can be found here and below:
