Constitution vs. Emergency Orders

Constitution vs. Emergency Orders

By Marcel LeRoy, Southbury

It is simply amazing how William Barrante [The Constitution and Threats to America, February 22] can twist facts to suit his ideas. In my last article, "U.S. Constitution Undermined" [February 15], I reported on a select government study group that issued U.S. Senate Report #93-549 in the 1st Session of the 93rd Congress on the topic "Emergency Powers Statutes: Provisions of Federal Law Now in Effect Delegating to the Executive Extraordinary Authority in Time of National Emergency." The opening statement on the first page of the foreword says: "Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency." It also states that "most people living today have lived most of their lives under the state of national emergency."

When a country is in a state of national emergency, many times the Constitution has been superseded by the declared national emergency.

Mr. Barrante goes on and, in a figment of his overactive imagination, says: "Mr. LeRoy's argument leads me to believe that he has read a book called Constitution: Fact or Fiction? by Dr. Eugene Schroeder." How wrong he is! In none of the articles that I have written have I ever mentioned or referred to this book. I can only conclude that he got this belief from the old television program Fantasy Island. If Mr. Barrante had paid attention to what I wrote, he would find that I was referring to the Senate Report #93-549 on Emergency Powers—all 607 pages of this report—in which it is stated:

Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared National Emergency. In fact, there are now in effect four presidentially-proclaimed states of national emergency [as of November 19, 1973]. In addition to the national emergency declared by President Roosevelt in 1933, there are also the national emergency proclaimed by President Truman on December 16, 1950, during the Korean conflict, and the states of national emergency declared by President Nixon on March 23, 1970, and August 15, 1971.

These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of Federal law. These hundreds of statutes delegate to the President extraordinary powers, ordinarily exercised by Congress, which affect the lives of American citizens in a host of all-encompassing manners. This vast range of powers, taken together, confer enough authority to rule the country without reference to normal Constitutional processes.

Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the president may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens.

Mr. Barrante, if the Constitution is what you say it is, these seizures would be totally unconstitutional. Let me go on from the report:

With the melting of the cold war—the developing détente with the Soviet Union and China, the stable truce of over 20 years duration between North and South Korea, and the end of U.S. involvement in the war in Indochina—there is no present need for the United States Government to continue to function under emergency conditions.

The Special Committee on the Termination of the National Emergency was created to examine the consequences of terminating the declared states of national emergency that now prevail; to recommend what steps the Congress should take to ensure that the termination can be accomplished without adverse effect upon the necessary tasks of governing; and, also, to recommend ways in which the United States can meet future emergency situations with speed and effectiveness but without relinquishment of congressional oversight and control.

This report was written with this mandate:

The Special Committee—in conjunction with the Executive branch, expert constitutional authorities, as well as former high officials of this government—is now engaged in a detailed study to determine the most reasonable ways to restore constitutional normalcy to the operations of our government … Many were aware that there had been a delegation of an enormous amount of power, but, of how much power, no one knew. In order to correct this situation, the Special Committee staff was instructed to work with the Executive branch, the Library of Congress, and knowledgeable legal authorities to compile an authoritative list of delegated emergency powers.

These 607 pages of documentation contain "a list of all provisions of Federal law, except the most trivial, conferring extraordinary powers in time of national emergency" (which today still exist). This special committee was compiled by the staff under the direction of William G. Miller and Mr. Thomas A. Dine, utilizing the help of the General Accounting Office, the American Law Division of the Library of Congress, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, and the Office of Emergency Planning. Other members of the special committee were Jack Goldklang of the Legal Counsel, Department of Justice; Lester S. Jayson, the director of the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress; Joseph E. Ross, head of the American Law Division of CRS; Raymond Celada of the American Law Division and his assistants, Charles V. Dale and Grover S. Williams; Paul Armstrong of the General Accounting Office; Linda Lee, Patrick Norton, Roland Moore, William K. Sawyer, Audrey Hatry, Martha Mecham and David J. Kyte. This special committee was headed by Senators Charles M. Mathias, Jr. and Frank Church.

Mr. Barrante, it looks like you don't have a problem with me, but with this special committee which issued U.S. Senate Report #93-549. After reading this extensive, 607-page report, I can only advise you to wake up and start smelling the coffee.