IEEPA? You do realize that this same law has been around since the '50s, right?

[originalpckelly]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEPA

I remember hearing about it first when it became the subject of a 1980s series on the US Constitution:
http://learner.org/resources/series72.html

The Constitution: That Delicate Balance, actually features an entire show based on a scenario about this law. Watch "Executive Privilege and Delegation of Powers" for more information.

We should always be mindful of emergency power, for they always imply a temporary detour from normal democratic process, and in many nations that temporary detour has become a permanent route.

While I'm for removing all emergency powers, I do have to say that this is a scare over really nothing more remarkable than any other President's use of this unconstitutional law. There are far scarier and more tyrannical things Bush has done, this is not the most important of them.

[originalpckelly]

1. In other words, IEEPA isn't martial law, even though it is unconstitutional.