CLOSE President Trump declared a national emergency to free up funding for his border wall between the U.S and Mexico. But declaring a national emergency isn’t new -- in fact, the use of emergency powers is older than the country itself. USA TODAY, Just the FAQs

WASHINGTON – California and 15 other states sued President Donald Trump on Monday over his decision to declare a national emergency to free up funding for his controversial border wall, calling the move "unlawful and unconstitutional."

The states allege in their lawsuit that Trump's emergency declaration exceeds the power of the president and unconstitutionally redirects federal money that Congress had set aside for other purposes. Trump made the declaration on Friday after lawmakers sent him a government funding bill that included $1.375 billion for the wall, far short of the $5.7 billion he initially requested.

White House officials said they believe they can unlock an additional $6.6 billion through the emergency declaration and other budget maneuvers. The White House believes the money would allow the administration to build at least 234 miles of the border wall, which was a central promise of Trump's 2016 campaign.

“President Trump treats the rule of law with utter contempt," saidCalifornia Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat. "He knows there is no border crisis, he knows his emergency declaration is unwarranted, and he admits that he will likely lose this case in court."

CLOSE During a press conference in the Rose Garden, President Trump admitted that he didn't need to declare a national emergency to fund his border wall, but that he did it so he could "get it done faster." USA TODAY

White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

California filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of California, where appeals are heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his opponents would file litigation there, and he predicted on Friday that the appeals court would rule against him.

"They will sue us in the 9th Circuit," Trump told reporters in the White House Rose Garden on Friday. "We will possibly get a bad ruling, and then we'll get another bad ruling and then we'll end up in the Supreme Court."

The states' lawsuit is only the latest, and it's probably not the last. Hours after Trump signed the emergencydeclaration, the watchdog group Public Citizen filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia. The suit was filed on behalf of Texas landowners who own property on the Rio Grande and others.

But the lawsuit filed by the states, whose attorneys general are all Democrats, will be especially important to watch, in part because of the legal resources attorneys general bring to major federal litigation and in part because of their standing to sue. The attorneys general argue in the suit that the president's moves will redirect drug interdiction money and other funds that would have gone to their states.

The states joining California are: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Virginia.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/18/donald-trump-california-sues-over-national-emergency-delcaration/2911625002/</s>California and 15 other states filed a lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released a statement Monday saying the suit alleges the Trump administration’s action violates the Constitution.

“President Trump treats the rule of law with utter contempt,” Becerra said. “He knows there is no border crisis, he knows his emergency declaration is unwarranted, and he admits that he will likely lose this case in court.”

READ MORE: White House hints Trump will veto Congressional disapproval of emergency declaration

Joining California in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Virginia.

Trump declared a national emergency to fulfil his promise of completing the wall.

The move allows the president to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and other budgets.

“President Trump is manufacturing a crisis and declaring a made-up ‘national emergency’ in order to seize power and undermine the Constitution,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement. “This ’emergency’ is a national disgrace.”</s>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Sunday that he will “definitely and imminently” file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for declaring a national emergency at the U.S.’ southern border.

“It’s clear that this isn’t an emergency, it’s clear that in the mind of Donald Trump he needs to do something to try to fulfill a campaign promise,” Becerra said during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.” The construction of a border wall has been a central issue for Trump since he first announced he was running for president in 2015.

Becerra added: “That doesn’t constitute a national emergency that would require us to essentially stand down on all sorts of federal laws and also violate the U.S. Constitution.”

Becerra, a former Democratic congressman for the state, has become one of the Trump administration’s biggest foils on a state level, especially in regards to the White House’s policies on immigration and border security.

“It’s become clear that this is not an emergency, not only because no one believes it is, but because Donald Trump himself has said it’s not,” Becerra said. “Typically, our presidents have focused on issues where the national interests are clearly at stake. The national interests aren’t at stake here.”

Trump declared the emergency Friday in an effort to go around Congress to fund his border wall. It would allow him to move federal dollars earmarked for military construction to the border — but is already facing legal and political challenges.

Democrats are planning to introduce a resolution disapproving of the declaration once Congress returns to session and it is likely to pass Congress. Several Republican senators are already indicating they would vote against Trump — though there are not yet enough votes to override a veto by the president.

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White House senior adviser Stephen Miller told “Fox News Sunday” that “the president is going to protect his national emergency declaration.” Asked if that meant Trump was ready to veto, Miller added, “He’s going to protect his national emergency declaration, guaranteed.”

Miller insisted that Congress granted the president wide berth under the National Emergencies Act to take action. But Trump’s declaration goes beyond previous emergencies in shifting money after Congress blocked his funding request for the wall, which will likely factor in legal challenges.</s>SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's attorney general says at least a dozen states will join a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Becerra told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" he planned to file California's lawsuit on Monday. He didn't specify which other states would join, but officials in Colorado and New Mexico have announced that they would challenge Trump.

Becerra says there is no emergency at the border and Trump doesn't have the authority to make the declaration.

Trump declared a national emergency to fulfill his promise of completing the wall.

The move allows the president to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and other budgets.

California has repeatedly challenged Trump in court. Becerra has filed at least 45 lawsuits against the administration.</s>SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California and 15 other states filed a lawsuit Monday against President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released a statement Monday saying the suit alleges the Trump administration’s action violates the Constitution.

“President Trump treats the rule of law with utter contempt,” Becerra said. “He knows there is no border crisis, he knows his emergency declaration is unwarranted, and he admits that he will likely lose this case in court.”

Joining California in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Virginia. All the states involved in the lawsuit have Democratic attorneys general.

Trump declared a national emergency to fulfill his promise of completing the wall.

The move allows the president to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and other budgets.

More: Toomey displeased with Trump's border emergency, breaks with Smucker, Perry

More: AP FACT CHECK: Emergency declarations are not everyday steps

More: White House indicates Trump to veto disapproval of emergency

The states say diversion of military funding to wall-building will hurt their economies and deprive their military bases of needed upgrades. They say taking away funds from counter-drug efforts for the wall will also cause damage. California and New Mexico, the two Mexican border states in the lawsuit, say the wall will harm wildlife.

“President Trump is manufacturing a crisis and declaring a made-up ‘national emergency’ in order to seize power and undermine the Constitution,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement. “This ‘emergency’ is a national disgrace.”</s>Hundreds of protests are planned nationwide Monday in response to President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump's declaration on Friday shifts billions of federal dollars earmarked for military construction to the border. The move to go around Congress to fund his long-promised border wall came after lawmakers in both parties blocked his requests for billions of dollars to fulfill his signature campaign pledge.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told ABC's "This Week" that his state would sue "imminently" to block the order, after the American Civil Liberties Union and the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen announced Friday they were taking legal action.

Democrats are planning to introduce a resolution disapproving of the declaration and it is likely to pass both chambers. Several Republican senators are already indicating they would vote against Trump — though there do not yet appear to be enough votes to override a veto by the president.

Some protests are listed on MoveOn.org and others can be found on rallylist.com.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall along the southern border, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)</s>Melania Trump is the First Lady of the US and wife of Donald Trump. The pair married in 2005, and Melania stood by her husbands side throughout is presidential campaign and leadership. Now the couple have left the White House together after Donald announced a national emergency over funds for his planned Mexico boarder wall. Melania and Donald were seen hand in hand heating for a private jet on the White House lawn yesterday.

Donald looked upbeat as he happily waved at photographers. Melania also wore a big smile as she heading for the aeroplane. The couple were heading to Florida for the weekend, to their huge private members club in Palm Beach. Mar-a-Lago is known as the Winter House, although Donald has owned the sprawling estate for many years. Donald Trump called a national emergency on Friday after he failed to get backing for his boarder wall.

The wall, to sit on the boarder between the USA and Mexico, was a huge element of Trump’s campaign. Donald Trump promised the and also claimed that Mexico would pay for it. However, things have not gone too smoothly from the businessman-turned-politcian when it comes to implementing his wall. Beside a photo of the President in the White House, the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, wrote on Twitter: “President @realDonaldTrump signs the Declaration for a National Emergency to address the national security and humanitarian crisis at the Southern Border.” According to estimates, this emergency declaration could see him access $8 billion (around £6.2 billion) to pay for part of the wall.</s>Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Friday that she will introduce legislation in the House of Representatives, along with Democratic colleague Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas to block President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration.

“.@JoaquinCastrotx and I aren’t going to let the President declare a fake national emergency without a fight,” the New York representative tweeted prior to Trump’s White House announcement.

Castro said in a statement that he would introduce a resolution under 50 U.S.C. 1622 — the National Emergencies Act — to overturn Trump’s declaration.

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The statute calls for Congress to vote on a joint resolution within a six-month window to decide whether an emergency declaration should be terminated.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York said Thursday that he would back such a resolution, USA Today reported.

“I will fully support the enactment of a joint resolution to terminate the president’s emergency declaration, in accordance with the process described in the National Emergencies Act, and intend to pursue all other available legal options,” he said. “The Judiciary Committee will also use its authority to hold the administration to account and determine the supposed legal basis for the president’s actions.”

While the resolution would likely clear the Democrat-controlled House, it is not clear how it would fare in the Senate where Republicans hold a 53 to 47 majority.

The Hill reported Thursday that GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, John Cornyn of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Marco Rubio of Florida have all expressed concerns about Trump appropriating border barrier funding by declaring a national emergency.

Trump has the power to veto a congressional vote to terminate his declaration, which would require a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House to override.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released a joint statement following Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, claiming he has “gone outside the bounds of the law.”

“The President’s actions clearly violate the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, which our Founders enshrined in the Constitution,” they further stated. “The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public, using every remedy available.”

Trump announced from the Rose Garden that he had signed the declaration, which directs $8 billion to construct or repair as much as 234 miles in border barrier, Politico reported.

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In addition to the $1.375 billion, Congress just voted to authorize, the White House will seek to redirect $3.6 billion from a military construction fund, $2.5 billion from a Department of Defense drug interdiction program and $600 million from the Treasury Department from a drug forfeiture fund.

The national emergency is specifically being used to tap the $3.6 billion from the military construction fund.

Among other statutory provisions regarding redirecting Pentagon funds to border security that the Trump administration will likely point to is 10 U.S.C 284.

In testimony before Congress last month, a top DOD official said the law authorizes the Pentagon to provide support for counter-drug operations if requested by the appropriate federal and state authorities.

The legislation specifically allows for the “construction of roads and fences and installation of lighting to block drug smuggling corridors across international boundaries of the United States.”

Trump predicted the Democrats and their allies will challenge his national emergency declaration in court, but believes the Supreme Court will side with his administration, if the case is treated fairly.

“The probably easiest one to win is declaring a national emergency, because we’re declaring it for virtual invasion purposes: drugs, traffickers, and gangs,” Trump said, referring to his past victory at the high court regarding his travel ban from certain countries. “We have removed thousands of MS-13 gang monsters.”

Many national emergencies have been declared by past presidents, including Barack Obama, Trump noted.

In fact, the president said he would use language from the Obama administration’s 2011 national emergency declaration in relation to transnational criminal gangs, which specifically identified the ruthless Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel.

In making the case for further barrier funding in late January, Trump said, “Last year alone, (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers removed 10,000 known or suspected gang members, like MS-13 and members as bad as them. Horrible people. Tough. Mean. Sadistic.”

“As commander in chief, my highest priority is the defense of our great country,” he added. “We cannot surrender operational control over the nation’s borders to foreign cartels, traffickers, and smugglers.”

Ocasio-Cortez has called for the abolishment of ICE on multiple occasions, Fox News reported.

“(ICE) do not deserve a dime until they can prove that they are honoring human rights, until they can make a good faith effort to expand and embrace immigrants … Until they can prove good faith to an American ideal, they do not deserve any resources for their radical agenda,” she said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said Rep. Joaquin Castro is a Democratic candidate for president. His twin brother Julian Castro is.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.</s>“We should be filing sometime today,” Becerra said. “We’re going to try to halt the President from violating the Constitution, the separation of powers, from stealing money from Americans and states that has been allocated by Congress, lawfully.”

Becerra said about a dozen states are joining the lawsuit.

It’s the latest challenge to hit the Trump administration, which already faces a litany of lawsuits over the national emergency declaration. Over the weekend, the Center for Biological Diversity, Border Network for Human Rights, which marched with Beto O’Rourke in El Paso, Texas, last week, and the American Civil Liberties Union all announced lawsuits.

At the core of each lawsuit is the argument that Trump is circumventing Congress to fund the wall along the US-Mexico border by declaring an emergency.

“The Constitution assigns Congress the power of the purse, and no prior president has ever tried to use emergency powers to fund a chosen project — particularly a permanent, large-scale domestic project such as this — against congressional will. This is obviously improper,” said Dror Ladin, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project.

Becerra argued that the states have standing to challenge Trump because money appropriated to them might be at risk.

“If the President is essentially stealing money that’s been allocated to go to the various states for various purposes but no longer will, we’re being harmed, our people are being harmed,” he said.

The wave of lawsuits was expected, though fighting them in court will likely be difficult.

The National Emergencies Act allows the President to declare a national emergency and unlock a stash of funds by invoking certain statutory authority. The President has wide discretion over what constitutes a national emergency. As a result, legal experts argue that fighting the declaration on the basis of the emergency itself will likely be difficult. The other question is whether the statute Trump has invoked — which in this case, requires the use of the armed forces — can be used to fund the wall.

Under the declaration, the administration will tap $2.5 billion of military narcotics funding and $3.6 billion in military construction funding. Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said he will start studying which projects to pull from and determine whether border barriers are necessary to support the use of the armed forces.

It’s not just lawsuits that the administration has to face, but also the possibility of a joint resolution put forth by House Democrats to terminate the declaration. The resolution would need to be voted on by the House and then the Senate, before heading to the President’s desk.

On Sunday, White House adviser Stephen Miller indicated that Trump would cast the first veto of his presidency if lawmakers tried to terminate the declaration.

National emergencies can last for one year and then terminate, unless the President renews the declaration 90 days prior, said Robert Chesney, who served in the Justice Department and teaches at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. Every six months, Congress can consider whether to put forward a joint resolution to terminate the emergency.

According to the Brennan Center, there have been 58 national emergencies between 1978 and 2018. Of those, 31 are still in effect today.</s>California and at least a dozen other states will be joining a lawsuit to challenge President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Monday. “The president admitted that there’s not a basis for the declaration, he admitted there’s no crisis at the border, he’s now trying to rob funds that were allocated by Congress legally to the various states and people of our states,” Becerra told MSNBC. “The separation of powers is being violated, we’re going to go out there and make sure that Donald Trump cannot steal money from the states and people who need them, since we paid the taxpayer dollars to Washington, D.C. to get those services.”

Speaking on CNN, Becerra said the lawsuit is imminent. “We should be filing sometime today,” Becerra said. “We’re going to try to halt the President from violating the Constitution, the separation of powers, from stealing money from Americans and states that has been allocated by Congress, lawfully.”

This marks the latest effort to challenge Trump’s emergency declaration in the courts. Earlier, three environmental and advocacy groups joined a lawsuit against the emergency declaration. The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit over the weekend arguing that the White House doesn’t have the authority to use emergency funds to build a wall along the Mexico border. “The only emergency here is Trump’s assault on the Constitution,” said Brian Segee, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “Separation of powers is at the heart of our democracy and the power of the purse is a critical check on the president. Trump’s authoritarian attempt to build his destructive border wall is a flagrant abuse of that constitutional structure. If he gets his way, it’ll be a disaster for communities and wildlife along the border, including some of our country’s most endangered species.” This came after the advocacy group Public Citizen also filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Texas landowners and an environmental group. The American Civil Liberties Union also said it was preparing a lawsuit claiming that Trump doesn’t have the authority to redirect taxpayer money to build a wall.

All the lawsuits shouldn’t come as a surprise to the White House. In fact, Trump said he fully expected the be sued when he announced the emergency declaration Friday but he was confident his administration would eventually come out on top of any legal challenge. “And I’ll sign the final papers as soon as I get into the Oval Office. And we will have a national emergency, and then we will then be sued, and they will sue us in the Ninth Circuit, even though it shouldn’t be there,” Trump said. “And we will possibly get a bad ruling, and then we’ll get another bad ruling. And then we’ll end up in the Supreme Court, and hopefully we’ll get a fair shake. And we’ll win in the Supreme Court, just like the ban.”

Challenge to the emergency declaration could also come from Congress, where lawmakers could put forth a joint resolution to terminate it. But White House adviser Stephen Miller hinted Trump wouldn’t hesitate to cast the first veto of his presidency if lawmakers tried to undo his emergency declaration. “Obviously the president is going to protect his national emergency declaration,” Miller said on Fox News Sunday.
Sixteen states sue U.S. President Donald Trump, calling his national emergency declaration made last week "unlawful and unconstitutional".