<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Talking about a "War Powers Act": Nasir v. Anderson (D NJ unpub 8/25/97); Daigle v. US (6th Cir unpub 1/29/96) 76 F2d 378(t); McCann v. Greenway (WD Mo 1997) 952 F.Supp 647; this myth is especially popular with a veterinarian, Gene Schroder, (sometimes spelled Schroeder, but
I follow the spelling used in 800 P2d 1360), who evidently characterizes as the "War Powers Act" the National Banking Emergency Act of March 9, 1933, the first act signed by FDR, 48 Stat 1, which was mostly codified under title 12 (banking) and deals entirely with regulating banks and restricting the hoarding and exporting of currency and precious metals, contrary to various myths it
has nothing to do with the flag, the military, the courts, or ordinary life; the statute apparently did not, by itself, commence a National Emergency and, if it did, that period was long over. A court decision, US v. Bishop (10th Cir 1977) 555 F2d 771, held that a Vietnam War perp’s destruction of a power line in 1969 could not be especially punished under the Sabotage Act as having been committed during a time "of national emergency" as the only national emergency that could be argued was still in effect in 1969 was Truman’s 1950 Proclamation arising from the Korean War. Almost immediately after the Bishop decision, Congress authorized a study into emergency powers legislation preparatory to new legislation to restrict the applications of states of
emergency; the resulting study, the Report of the Senate Special Committee on the Termination of the National Emergency, Emergency Powers Statutes: Provision of federal law now in effect delegating to the executive extraordinary authority in time of national emergency, Sen.Rept.
93-549, 11/19/73, 607 pages; mostly a listing of statutory provisions that allowed the govt to skip certain procedural steps if during a declared state of national emergency. This report determined that, in 1973, there were still existent four declared states of emergency: Section 1 of the 1933 Act, which is (still in effect) now 12 USC sec. 95b (which only authorizes the issuance of new
regs designed to facilitate 12 USC sec. 95a which restricts the exporting, hoarding, or melting of gold and other precious metals), Truman’s 1950 proclamation about the Korean War, Nixon’s 1970 proclamation about the postal service strike, and Nixon’s 1971 proclamation about an economic emergency arising from the balance of trade deficit which including imposing an additional tariff on imports. As a result of this study, Congress enacted a few years later the
National Emergencies Act, PL 94-412, 9/14/1976, 90 Stat 1255, codified at 50 USC sec. 1601, 1621, etc., which imposed a two year duration on any existing national emergencies and required that any future declaration of a national emergency must be reviewed by Congress at six month intervals. Subsequently, Congress amended the 1933 Act by enacting the War or National
Emergency Act, PL 95-223, 12/28/77, 91 Stat 1625, which amended 12 USC sec. 95a to limit
explicitly the President’s capacity to impose the restrictions of the Trading with the Enemy Act and to issue regulations about international transactions involving money, credit or precious metals to "time of war" and not during a mere "period of national emergency" (striking that expression
wherever it had appeared in the 1933 Act); in the accompanying committee report (Sen.Rpt.
95-466) it was explained that this 1977 law was in furtherance of the 1976 law on limiting national emergencies, and was deliberately intended to limit and terminate what it considered excessive Presidential use of the four old declared emergencies to manipulate the laws on international
financial transactions. Altho militia mythology stresses that we are always in a declared state of emergency, it turns out that the emergency situations which still persist - and they do persist,
according to occasional Presidential Executive Orders - relate directly to foreign events, such as Mideast terrorism, and are limited to such things as embargoes and the freezing of certain bank assets associated with a foreign adversary.[/quote]
Couldn't have said it better myself. Bold print is my addition.
LawDog
[This message has been edited by LawDog (edited March 25, 2000).]