Legal experts: Emergency declaration may not be quickest way to build wall

In declaring a national emergency to build a border wall last month, President Trump described the move as the fastest path to construction — and Texas is one of the administration’s top priorities for the next round of barrier building.

But as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on the declaration — and Trump readies his veto pen — legal experts say that even if the president gets his way, a variety of legal issues could delay wall construction for years and even derail it entirely. Even under an emergency declaration, they say, a president doesn’t have free rein to take land for a border wall — partly because, according to several experts, the declaration makes the legal questions surrounding land seizures even murkier.

Under normal circumstances, the federal government has extraordinary eminent domain powers — if it wants to seize property, landowners are virtually powerless to stop it. But several attorneys and academics who specialize in eminent domain law said that’s only if Congress specifically authorizes the condemnation, or the project that requires it.

Read the entire story on the e-Edition of our newspaper. http://www.etypeservices.com/Advance%20News%20JournalID455/