Root pointed to the 1983 Supreme Court ruling of Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha as the reason the president would have the right to declare a national emergency:
Because it’s so hard to get the Senate to do anything— now they’re on recess; they don’t get anything done—if they never get the Save America Act done, you have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections. And the Supreme Court ruled in 1983 under Reagan, INS versus Chadha, that if you declare a national security emergency as the president of the United States, they can’t challenge it. It can only be overturned by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress. So if you do this in the next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship and a limit to mail-in ballots.
Trump’s response was brief but noteworthy.
“Let me just say that stranger things have happened, okay? I’ll leave it at that,” he said.
The conversation comes after the U.S. Senate failed to pass the SAVE America Act before the August recess, and prospects for its passage look bleak. The SAVE America Act would establish voter ID, require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and end universal mail-in ballots with a few exceptions. It also would codify measures that Trump has taken through executive action, like banning trans mutilation of minors and keeping men out of women’s sports.
