https://www.salon.com/2019/01/08/tr...ay-will-this-be-a-take-to-the-streets-moment/
"While Trump says he’s keeping the government closed and threatening to declare an emergency in the name of building his ridiculous wall, it’s also a convenient means for him to engage in a massive power grab as Robert Mueller’s report, along with further indictments and an avalanche of inevitable Democratic House committee investigations, dangle precariously over the president’s garishly painted face.
But if Trump exercises his constitutional authority to declare an emergency due to an alleged “invasion,” as he has called it, it’d be a treacherous skeleton key allowing him to derail many of the obstacles in his path to consolidating executive power, including the closing of Mueller’s office.
Specifically, the Constitution gives the president the authority to suspend habeas corpus -- to arrest dissidents without charges during an invasion or rebellion. It also allows him to sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, intended to prevent the routine use of military force on American soil.
The
Congressional Research Service issued a 2007 outline of powers retained by the president should be declare a national emergency:
Under the powers delegated by such statutes, the president may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens.
