“Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency....Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens. ... A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have, in varying degrees, been abridged by laws brought into force by states of national emergency....from, at least, the Civil War in important ways shaped the present phenomenon of a permanent state of national emergency.”

Somehow or another, knowing that any president has this kind of power doesn't make me feel safer, just the opposite.

All hail Emperor FDR! What kind of people did we have in that day who would keep electing someone as if he were promising "something for nothing."

A flaw in the Consitution or at least in its application is the Executive power to declare a national emergency and thus usurp all power into its hands. The threat of war cannot be a cause for a 'national emergency' -- there will always be a threat to the nation, just as many nations consider the US military to be a threat to them. Has there ever been a time since FDR when there was not a national emergency in effect? I believe that is how the office of the president has been able to build all these militant agencies that have erected a police state in America.

Thank you for providing this and the one that followed. Funny, even the conservative media fail to mention things of this import. At least now I know I'm not crazy or paranoid. We are soon to be history.

Editor, excellent research ! ! ! Thanks

Excellent resource for my new book - many thanks, Robert

Why is it that no matter what decade you live in, there is no freedom in America? I guess that's what we get when you live in a capitalist dictatorship.

This is the War Powers Act of 1933, which made us all enemies of the State!

The term that defines limiting actions, restraint and an isolation of those with a contagious disease is called “quarantine”. The term that defines limiting actions, restraint and an isolation of healthy people is called “tyranny”. Any of various economic and political theories / activities advocating / enforcing collective or governmental ownership (people, property, etc.) and administration of economics, the means of production, and distribution of goods is called, “socialism” The occupying statist theocracy infesting this land does not recognize individual inalienable rights, liberty, or “the laws of nature and of nature’s God” (Declaration of Independence); AND, is not a constitutionally limiting "republican form of government" (Article IV, Section 4, U.S. Constitution).

The president has to have the ability to react in an emergency.  The founders knew that and also knew that the republic could not exist unless the population held the leadership to a high level of moral character.  Our leaders are only a reflection of our collective character. We are the ones that truly need to change.