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Would a state of emergency allow the executive branch to suspend the Constitution?
I don't think there's any legal way to suspend the entire constitution.
But parts of it have been suspended in time of war.
Free speech, habeas corpus, due process for a particular ethnic group - have been suspended by presidents. And I would argue that parts of the Patriot Act were suspensions of ordinary civil rights as we previously understood them.
So yes, for instance in the case of a multiple nuclear strikes within the US, I think a president could legitimately argue that huge chunks of the constitution could and should be suspended.
The President of the United States has available certain powers that may be exercised in the event that the nation is threatened by crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances (other than natural disasters, war, or near-war situations). Such powers may be stated explicitly or implied by the Constitution, assumed by the Chief Executive to be permissible constitutionally, or inferred from or specified by statute. Through legislation, Congress has made a great many delegations of authority in this regard over the past 200 years.
There are, however, limits and restraints upon the President in his exercise of emergency powers. With the exception of the habeas corpus clause, the Constitution makes no allowance for the suspension of any of its provisions during a national emergency. Disputes over the constitutionality or legality of the exercise of emergency powers are judicially reviewable. Indeed, both the judiciary and Congress, as co-equal branches, can restrain the executive regarding emergency powers. So can public opinion.
Furthermore, since 1976, the President has been subject to certain procedural formalities in utilizing some statutorily delegated emergency authority. The National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601-1651) eliminated or modified some statutory grants of emergency authority; required the President to declare formally the existence of a national emergency and to specify what statutory authority, activated by the declaration, would be used; and provided Congress a means to countermand the President’s declaration and the activated authority being sought. The development of this regulatory statute and subsequent declarations of national emergency are reviewed in this report, which is updated as events require.
I think the most likely scenario for the USA in this regard is a military coup. If the nation continues to decline and the government seems to be incapable of stopping this slide into third world conditions I think that somewhere along the line the military will take over the country, write a new and functional constitution and set the nation on a new path. The only problem being that once militaries take power they are usually loath to give it back.
I don't think there's any legal way to suspend the entire constitution.
If the "legal" way to implement it is simply by force than it surely can be suspended by the same means.
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