SOUNDING THE ALARM: TRUMP'S EMERGENCY DECLARATION AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER AND CONSTITUTIONAL FAILURE.

Experts and scholars have engaged in a debate as to whether President Trump's February 2019 declaration of a national emergency at the southern border presents a threat to the constitutional order. This paper describes and critically evaluates three schools of thought with respect to this debate in order to determine whether Trump's emergency declaration was an authoritarian move that threatens constitutional democracy. This paper also considers whether Trump's action, and Congress's response, are evidence of constitutional failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]