In a Washington Post article written by Deanna Paul ’11, Gerald Dickinson ’13 is quoted about the possibility of President Trump declaring a national emergency to construct the border wall.
According to Gerald S. Dickinson, assistant professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, the military has always had the authority to seize private land. But as a nation, he said, Americans have been uncomfortable with enforcing domestic law through the military.
Trump’s threat of a “military version” of eminent domain necessitates the military acquiring privately owned land along the border to build a wall.
“That raises some questions about the constitutionality of doing that,” he said.