Alan Dershowitz: Trump’s Feds Have Limits

The Feds cannot infringe on State Rights but can protect federal property within that state.

Source: Newsmax

Without approval from local leaders, President Donald Trump has a narrow constitutional path to justify sending federal officers into U.S. cities, legal expert Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV.

“He certainly within his rights to send agents in to protect federal courthouses, federal postal outlets, and federal officials – there’s a statute that gives them that authority and the Constitution gives him the authority to make sure that the law is enforced,”

Alan Dershowitz

“What is much more questionable is whether he has the authority to send in troops just generally to cities that are not in areas where there are federal buildings or federal interests to become a federal police force. The Constitution doesn’t seem to permit that without the request of the governor or the state legislature – which hasn’t happened in the Portland and other cases.”

Alan Dershowitz

Trump has announced the expansion of “Operation Legend,” where federal agencies are being authorized by the Trump administration and Justice Department to send money, resources, and personnel into American cities with high crime rates, including Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“You have to rely on that one statute that does permit federal government to protect the federal buildings,”

Alan Dershowitz
In Interview with Grant Stinchfield

Dershowitz told host Grant Stinchfield, who asked if violent anti-police and anti-government rioting can be considered an “insurrection” as was bandied about with regard to illegal aliens crossing the U.S. border in the 2018 midterm elections.

“It’s hard to call this an insurrection – and certainly not an invasion. The law is not particularly clear. The Constitution isn’t crystal clear on this. That statute is clear on this, and that statute has been held constitutional.”

Alan Dershowitz

Ultimately the debate of executive authority is going to be a battle waged in the courts, he added.

“These are hard questions that nobody anticipated would arise,”

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz: Trump’s Feds Have Limits

TD