Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax Friday that the courts may be overstepping their role by challenging President Donald Trump’s authority to deploy federal agents.
Judge Karin Immergut blocked Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to Portland on Saturday, ruling that it violated constitutional limits and misrepresented the situation on the ground. Appearing on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren,” Dershowitz responded to the ruling by posing what he called “the real question” at the heart of the fight.
“She may be right on the merits, but does the judiciary have the power to second-guess the president when the president says, ‘Look, my federal agents are in danger. They’re not being helped to enforce the immigration laws,’” Dershowitz told host Greta Van Susteren. “The real question is, who has the right to be wrong? Is it the executive, or is it the judiciary?”
Dershowitz pointed to the president’s constitutional duty to enforce federal law and protect federal agents, saying that even if some of Trump’s legal arguments falter, the broader principle of executive authority will likely prevail.
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“Judges sit in ivory towers. They don’t see the street. They don’t have real access to what’s going on. They can hear evidence, of course. But I suspect in the end, the president’s power will be upheld, maybe not to declare it a resurrection or an invasion, but to protect federal troops and to enforce federal law,” Dershowitz said. “That’s not covered by the 10th Amendment or any of the other powers that are limited only to the state.”
While he acknowledged that courts can weigh evidence, Dershowitz said that the president holds distinct and superior powers when it comes to federal enforcement.
“The federal government does have the right to enforce federal law and to protect federal agents. So my prediction is that the president will lose battles along the way, but in the end he’ll win the war,” Dershowitz said. (RELATED: ‘I’m Totally Frightened’: Lifelong Democrat Dershowitz Says He’ll ‘Campaign Very Hard For Republicans’ In Midterms)
Trump announced in September that he would deploy 200 National Guard troops to assist immigration authorities to confront what he called “domestic terrorists.” He directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to send “all necessary troops.”
Federal immigration officials said protesters have attacked the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center for over 100 consecutive nights with little assistance from local police. Federal agents fired tear gas, mace, and pepper spray at hundreds of demonstrators marching toward the facility. A day earlier, Trump ordered his administration to identify federal funds to cut from Portland in response to the continued unrest.
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