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For Immediate Release
February, 14 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Jen Nessel, Center for Constitutional Rights, (212) 614-6449, jnessel@ccrjustice.org
Border Wall "Emergency" Fake, Center for Constitutional Rights Says
Japanese internment, warrantless wiretapping were comparable abuses of emergency powers
WASHINGTON
In response to Donald Trump's invocation today of emergency executive power to build a wall on the southern border, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:
Trump's power grab to build his pet wall violates the separation of powers, but, more to the point, there is no emergency. Attempted border crossings are at 40-year lows; the exclusion of migrants at the southern border is not because of any emergency, it is because of racism.
The real emergency is a petulant president invoking easily-abused powers intended for use during events like natural disasters and civil wars because he could not get his way legislatively. Like the internment of Japanese-Americans and Bush-era warrantless wiretapping--also undertaken pursuant to emergency executive power--history will condemn Donald Trump for abusing his power. This will, as emergency powers always have, devastate already vulnerable communities.
And neither the president's forces nor the president's pen will help to restore our values again.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is fighting two cases challenging the Trump administration's policies and practices at the Southern Border, Al Otro Lado v. Nielsen with American Immigration Council (AIC), Latham & Watkins LLP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center; and East Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Trump with the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center. The Center for Constitutional Rights has a long history of challenging executive overreach.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
(212) 614-6464LATEST NEWS
Schumer Vows to Keep Forcing Iran War Powers Votes as Senators Sink Another Resolution
"If Donald Trump won’t dig us out of this hole, Congress must step into the breach and exercise its constitutional authority over matters of war and peace," the minority leader said.
Apr 22, 2026
For the fifth time since President Donald Trump launched the Iran War in February, US senators on Wednesday voted down a resolution that would have blocked Trump from continuing his joint assault with Israel on the Mideast nation.
Upper chamber lawmakers voted 51-46 against SJ Res. 114, Sen. Tammy Baldwin's (D-Wis.) war powers resolution. Kentucky Republican Rand Paul joined Democrats in voting for the resolution, while John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to oppose it. Three senators—Chuck Grassley (R-Neb.), Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.)—did not vote.
Wednesday's vote marked the fifth time that an Iran war powers resolution has failed to pass the Senate this year. On March 4, Fetterman helped upper chamber Republicans sink one such measure introduced by Paul and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Two weeks later, senators came within three votes of passing a similar resolution introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), a rejection repeated days later in a follow-up vote. Last week, Fetterman again crossed the aisle to help defeat a fourth resolution introduced by disabled combat veteran Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
In remarks delivered on the Senate floor before Wednesday's vote, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said: "Every day, we hear new promises from the Trump administration that victory has been achieved, that peace is at hand, that costs are starting to come down. And every day, we see the opposite. Trump can talk all he wants, but nothing will change until he realizes that this war needs to end."
Donald Trump has been offering empty promises to end his war for weeks.At 5 PM, Senate Democrats will offer his Senate Republican puppets a FIFTH chance to do just that with a vote on our War Powers Resolution.
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— Chuck Schumer (@schumer.senate.gov) April 22, 2026 at 1:48 PM
"And if Donald Trump won’t dig us out of this hole, Congress must step into the breach and exercise its constitutional authority over matters of war and peace," Schumer added. "Democrats will continue to force votes on our resolutions every week until Senate Republicans see reason."
On Tuesday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced a fresh Iran war powers resolution, reportedly in coordination with the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) previously introduced the first of three failed Iran war powers resolutions in the lower chamber.
Responding to Wednesday's vote, Fetterman told Fox News host Sean Hannity that "Iran must be so excited by the American media and the Democratic Party," adding that Iranian leaders must be thinking, "as long as we can hang on... more and more people [will] continue to vote against the Trump administration."
As US and Israeli attacks on Iran—which have left more than 30,000 people dead or wounded, according to Iranian and international officials—are paused for a truce extension pending the outcome of negotiations, the Trump administration announced Wednesday that US Navy Secretary John Phelan is resigning "effective immediately." The administration gave no reason for the move.
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In 'Major Earth Day Win,' House GOP Cancels Vote on Gutting Endangered Species Act
"At a time when we should be strengthening protections for species," said one advocate, "not weakening them, it’s clear there is growing opposition to efforts that put special interests ahead of science and conservation."
Apr 22, 2026
Republican leadership in the US House of Representatives planned to mark Earth Day with a "catastrophic" attack on the Endangered Species Act, but ultimately canceled Wednesday's vote at the last minute, a development celebrated by conservationists nationwide.
After reports of "problems" getting some Republicans to back the ESA Amendments Act and a procedural vote that "showed shaky support from party members," as The New York Times put it, the House adjourned without a final vote on the bill—which the newspaper called "an embarrassing setback" for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
While the lead sponsor, House Committee on Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), claimed that "we just have a few provisions we've got to work through on it, and hopefully in the next couple of weeks, we'll be able to vote on it," Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that "this should be a wake-up call to Rep. Westerman that not even his own colleagues support his extreme attacks on wildlife."
"It's time for him to drop this failed crusade," Kurose declared. "Good riddance."
Other wildlife defenders joined Kurose in enthusiastically welcoming the blow to what Bradley Williams, the Sierra Club's deputy legislative director for wildlife and lands protection, called "extremely harmful legislation."
"We are encouraged to see that the House of Representatives has pulled this bill after outcry from Republicans and Democrats," Williams said in a statement. "By rejecting a bill that would have gutted protections for endangered and threatened species across the country, Congress is sending a clear message that protecting wildlife is a shared American value, not a partisan issue."
Jewel Tomasula, policy director for the Endangered Species Coalition, which has hundreds of member organizations, said that "given the more than 58,000 emails sent to elected officials, along with hundreds—if not thousands—of calls made in just the past few days, it is clear that the American people support the Endangered Species Act, understand its value, and want its protections for threatened and endangered wildlife to remain in place."
"This is a welcome sign that efforts to gut protections for imperiled species are not moving forward on Earth Day," Tomasula continued. "We're glad Congress is hearing their constituents' concerns about Westerman's harmful bill and taking pause to listen. For now, the important work to protect endangered species can continue. This Congress should leave the ESA alone."
Major #EarthDay win 🎉: H.R. 1897, aka the Endangered Species Act Amendments Act was just pulled from house floor consideration following outcry from both Republicans and Democrats who oppose the bill.
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— Center for Biological Diversity (@biologicaldiversity.org) April 22, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Sara Amundson, president of Humane World for Animals Action Fund, similarly said that "on Earth Day, pulling the House vote on the deeply flawed Endangered Species Act bill is a clarion call that legislators need to stop heeding their own leadership and start doing the will of their constituents."
"At a time when we should be strengthening protections for species like grizzly bears and sea turtles, not weakening them, it’s clear there is growing opposition to efforts that put special interests ahead of science and conservation," Amundson said. "We urge Congress to abandon this harmful proposal altogether and instead focus on upholding and strengthening the Endangered Species Act for future generations."
Defenders of Wildlife legislative director Mary Beth Beetham proclaimed that "now we can really celebrate Earth Day!"
"The public defeat of the Westerman bill is a direct result of sustained constituent pressure," she stressed. "Congress is finally listening to the majority of Americans who support the Endangered Species Act, rather than centering politics and money in its policy decisions."
"The decision to not advance the vote keeps current safeguards in place, which have protected 99% of species from extinction," Beetham added. "While there is still much more work to secure lasting protections for wildlife, today's outcome is a meaningful victory for conservation."
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Trump FCC Chair Hints at TV Warnings for Kids' Content That Acknowledges Existence of Transgender People
"This is a solution in search of a problem, and another example of this commission prioritizing culture war politics over the real issues that affect consumers every day," said the only Democratic FCC commissioner.
Apr 22, 2026
In the Trump administration's latest attempt to push transgender people out of public life, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that his agency is weighing whether ratings on television shows should be modified to warn viewers when trans people are acknowledged.
Carr posted a public notice on social media that the FCC's Media Bureau would be seeking public comment on whether the TV Parental Guidelines age rating system—established under the Telecommunications Act of 1996—should include notices for "transgender and gender nonbinary programming" in a similar fashion to existing labels for sex, violence, and other content that parents could consider "harmful" to children.
Carr wrote: "Recently, parents have raised concerns with the industry’s approach... They argue that New York and Hollywood programmers are promoting controversial issues in kids' programming without providing any transparency or disclosures to parents."
Neither Carr nor the FCC's notice elaborated on what supposedly harmful content children were being exposed to or which programs it would seek to warn families about.
The FCC notice also asked for public comment on whether other changes should be made to ensure that the TV Oversight Management Board, which oversees the rating system, represents a "range of family values." It also inquired about whether it should add board members from religious organizations.
While the FCC does not directly implement the programming ratings, it does have a role in overseeing them. As FCC chairman, Carr has brought an unusually heavy hand down on the rights of broadcasters to air content critical of President Donald Trump.
He has threatened to strip the broadcast licenses of networks that cover Trump's war in Iran unfavorably. Before that, he was briefly successful in his efforts to bully ABC into pulling the Trump-critical late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's show from the air.
By labeling transgender and nonbinary representation as dangerous to children, Carr would be taking yet another action to bring the media landscape into conformity with the Trump administration's agenda, which has consisted of systematic attempts to push transgender Americans to the margins of society and portray them as deviant and dangerous, particularly to children.
Among a slew of other anti-LGBTQ+ policies, the administration has reinstated a full ban on transgender people in the military, attempted to punish medical establishments that provide gender-affirming care, withheld passports and other legal documents from transgender people containing their preferred gender identifiers, and aggressively sought to pressure school districts into adopting policies that refuse to recognize trans students.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency’s only Democratic commissioner, criticized Carr's push to revise TV ratings.
“American families are worried about affordability, access, and rising costs, not whether the TV ratings system has enough warnings about gender identity,” Gomez said in a statement. “The FCC’s own record shows the existing system is working fine."
While Carr claimed there had been many complaints about "ratings creep" from parents, Gomez noted that the most recent report from the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board said it received just 11 complaints about ratings guidelines in 2025 and that only two resulted in a ratings change.
Gomez said, "This is a solution in search of a problem, and another example of this commission prioritizing culture war politics over the real issues that affect consumers every day."
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