[lentulusgracchus]

[cr] 1. The President can certainly take take emergency actions in the face of an insurrection. Susspending the privilege of the writ of habease corpus, per the reasons provided in the Constitution, in the absense of Congress, is a valid exercise of war powers.

Bullhockey. That's Reichstag Fire stuff. The Constitution doesn't stop like a stopwatch the minute a gun goes off.

The president can't stand up in a crowded theater, shout "War!", and immediately take up the fasces of a dictator.

[capitan_refugio]

"The president can't stand up in a crowded theater, shout "War!", and immediately take up the fasces of a dictator."

But as the Supreme Court said in the Prize Cases, war presented itself and the President had an obligation to respond. And I'll add, respond with everything in his arsenal (military and legal).