Originally posted by: LiveFreeNW
I replied to this earlier but I think you missed it:
Article 1 section 8 is the powers of Congress. It grants Congress authority over federal buildings.
..........To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings......... (My emphasis)
Article 2 is the power of the executive branch/president. I can find nothing in there that can be reasonably interpreted to grant the President the power to renovate a federal building.
Why keep citing the law and the Constitution when discussing the legality of Trump's actions? Clearly, he operates outside the law and routinely and flagrantly exceeds his authority, with no checks and no repercussions.
The law: Presidential powers and authority are carefully circumscribed in the Constitution.
Trump: I can do whatever I want. Fuck the law.
Who's winning that argument?
The day is coming, sooner than most people realize, when a lawyer will make the same case you're making in federal court--challenging the President's exceeding of his Constitutional authority--and he will be hauled off to prison by government agents, never to return. It might be during Vance's presidency or Trump's third term.
Very few people realize how close we are to fascism and the eradication of our democracy. Our country is now like a wobbling gyroscope. When the most powerful man in the nation takes an oath to defend the Constitution and then routinely violates that oath, and no one even slows him down, let alone stops him, then the system has failed; it has collapsed.
The only solution is a revolution, but the American public is far too comfy and complacent to foment or even support it. They think we can just elect better leaders and the inherent stability of the system will save us. They don't realize that we may already have held the last actual election in American history.