Emergency Powers of the President

Civics 101

NHPR

Government, History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Emergency powers are designed for when plans need to change, and fast, by allowing the president to override certain Constitutional provisions in a time of crisis. So how has the national emergency gone from a rarity to a tool that presidents use dozens of times while in office? We look at what a president can (and cannot) do during a state of emergency, and how Congress has tried to put checks on that power, with help from Kim Lane Scheppele, author of Law in a Time of Emergency. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response.
0:06.4	President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a national emergency.
0:10.6	Now, not over the next 68 days, but right now.
0:14.8	The bottom line is this, we're in a national emergency.
0:18.2	We need to act like we're in a national emergency.
0:23.4	Nick, how common would you wager a national emergency is?
0:30.2	A national emergency sounds like a very rare thing.
0:33.4	Like it's reserved for emergencies.
0:35.8	It's like break this glass, but only if there is an emergency.
0:39.1	Currently, in December 2021, when we are recording this, we have 40 active national emergencies.
0:48.1	40?
0:49.1	Yeah.
0:50.1	And some of these emergencies have been active for decades.
0:53.3	The oldest is from 1979 and started after the Iran hostage crisis.
0:58.4	The Moroccan Embassy in Tehran is in the hands of Muslim students tonight.
1:02.5	Spurred on by an anti-American speech by the Ayatollah Khomeini, they stormed the embassy
1:07.2	from the Marine Guard.
1:08.5	I mean, I assume we're not just talking about something that happened that seemed like
1:12.6	an emergency at the time.
1:14.2	This is an official codified term, right?
1:16.5	Yeah, it's more than someone just yelling, it's an emergency.
1:20.6	Actually, it's not too different from that, but it is that the president is the one yelling
	...

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