In the News: William C. Banks

"On a scale of one to 10, I’d say my worry is about a nine," says William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "There are several plausible scenarios that could cause this election to go off the rails."

"[National security] definitions are a game that all governments play. Pay attention instead to how governments treat their citizens," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

While military deployment to the border by President Trump is "clearly legal," Professor of Practice William Banks questions "whether the wall construction itself is lawful."

The National Guard is trained to help domestically in a variety of capacities. "That said, they are members of the military, not law enforcement, so they are largely trained to supplement military jobs," says Professor Emeritus William Banks.

"You want to come to the aid of the states when states can’t take care of themselves," says Professor Emeritus William C. Banks, about President Trump's threat to invoke the Insurrection Act.

Most of the time...America’s military forces have remained in the background, waiting for direction from civilian leaders to respond to crises and then only in limited ways," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "That’s by design. We train soldiers to fight and win wars and deter threats overseas."

"The Insurrection Act may be invoked only following an invasion, insurrection or widespread domestic violence," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "Only if states attempt to leave the Union would state defiance enable Insurrection Act authority. Otherwise the states control their citizens' health, welfare and safety."

"If martial law were invoked, the government would be conducted ad hoc by the president or a military commander based entirely on his or her opinion of what was needed to meet the emergency, unbound by any laws and with no transparency or public participation, and probably no accountability afterward," writes William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. 

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks says the changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process in the bill would increase accountability for abuses of the system and require the FBI to disclose more information to the court.

"One of the things to bear in mind about the procedure in the Senate is that there’s very little in the way of a legal road map. The Constitution says simply that the Senate should have the sole power to trial an impeachment," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

"This is an escalation for sure but retaliation, revenge or reprisals are unlawful at international law, not that Iran abides by international law," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "The risks are that the U.S. will play along and some escalatory act will be disproportionate to the circumstances, leading to something far worse," he adds.

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks said congressional action regarding FISA could further insert politics into a process that should be free of it. "All the politics that surrounded the headlines of this story would rear their ugly head again," he says. "It could end up with more amendments to FISA that do more harm than good."

"For those who believe in the rule of law and the importance of constitutional norms, his impeachment is nonetheless important because it upholds and reinforces the importance of those norms," says Professor Emeritus William Banks.

William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, says "stonewalling" by administration members is based on the presumption that courts will uphold White House executive privilege. "This ploy buys time and delays the House proceedings, but also may add another charge in the impeachment—obstruction of justice."

"If the public impeachment process builds the Ukraine abuse of office case clearly so that average Americans can see what the president did, it should lead to impeachment and a trial in the Senate," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "From there on, everything depends on events that have yet to occur."

"Rep. [Adam] Schiff is protected by the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution from being questioned 'in any other place,'" said William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "The protection clearly extends to the offending Tweets."

"If the allegations are true, the abuse of power is significant, and many members of Congress will be motivated to conduct impeachment proceedings," says William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

"It’s possible for Congress to enact—over a veto—funding restrictions on this or new funds that the president wants or needs. There’s lots of horse trading to come," says Professor Emeritus William Banks.