Is the Mere Existence of a Law a Sufficient Reason to Use It? Ask the Resistance!
After Alan Dershowitz said that Andrew McCabe’s musing about using the 25th Amendment to the Constitution would be “unconstitutional,” all the Smart People derided Dershowitz:
Alan Dershowitz has just declared the Constitution to be unconstitutional.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) February 15, 2019
Well at least now I can tell my grandkids I lived through President Donald Trump retweeting Alan Dershowitz telling Tucker Carlson that invoking a constitutional amendment is unconstitutional https://t.co/nYZyLOTFEB
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) February 15, 2019
Ha, ha, get it? Invoking the 25th Amendment can’t be unconstitutional because it’s in the Constitution! It doesn’t matter that McCabe’s proposed invocation of that provision would be bogus! The provision is there! And that’s all you need to know!
But these same Smart People are saying that Trump can’t just declare an emergency! It’s unlawful!
The president's "national emergency" is a purely dictatorial action: https://t.co/ltq6PntunL pic.twitter.com/6LlAL1HRH6
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) February 15, 2019
But Congress gave the President the power to declare an emergency. The provision is right there in the law! All of a sudden it matters whether someone is invoking the provision in a way not intended by the drafters?
If I didn’t know better, I might think that the Smart People aren’t being entirely consistent…