Just as the Democrats’ decision to eliminate the filibuster on lifetime judicial appointments below the Supreme Court backfired — setting precedent for a Republican rules change to put two justices on the Supreme Court and secure its conservative majority for a generation — Republicans will rue the day if they go along with Trump’s executive power grab. More than a dozen Senate Republicans have spoken out against his emergency declaration — including Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Pat Toomey, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Lamar Alexander, Ben Sasse, Thom Tillis, John Cornyn, Mike Rounds, Charles E. Grassley and Roy Blunt. If their votes comport with their words, that is more than enough to pass a resolution of disapproval.
In fact, every Republican in Congress should vote for such a resolution. Stopping executive overreach and restoring Congress’s Article I powers was a key plank in Republicans’ 2016 Better Way agenda. “Our President has been acting more like a monarch than an elected official,” House Republicans declared. “That stops now.”
Trump would no doubt veto a resolution. But the fact that a bipartisan majority of both houses voted to overturn Trump’s declaration would bolster the legal case against his action.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member