<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><b><font size="4">Champaign County ACLU is supporting the Presidents' Day Protest Against National Emergency </font></b></div><div class="gmail_default"><b><font size="4">MON Feb. 18   3 - 4 pm. </font></b></div><div class="gmail_default"><b><font size="4">Champaign Public Library, 200 W Green.</font></b></div><div class="gmail_default"><b><font size="4">Please spread the word and JOIN US!</font></b></div><div class="gmail_default"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color:rgb(29,33,41);font-family:system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,".SFNSText-Regular",sans-serif;font-size:14px;white-space:pre-wrap">At 3 pm we'll meet up at the Champaign Public Library in the Robeson Rooms on the first floor. From there we will march down Green St. to Neil St. to the Champaign Municipal Building. If you have time constraints or mobility concerns, you can park or drive along the route and honk when you see us coming. Share your support however you can. Bring signs, your friends, warm clothes and your sense of solidarity. We hope to see you there! </span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="color:rgb(29,33,41);font-family:system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,".SFNSText-Regular",sans-serif;font-size:14px;white-space:pre-wrap"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default">Facebook Event is here: <font size="1"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/349020155699551/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A4%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D&source=4&action_history=null&ref=4" id="gmail-m_-5369798076892241754gmail-m_8874167898177590516LPlnk882407" target="_blank" style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">https://www.facebook.com/events/349020155699551/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A4%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D&source=4&action_history=null&ref=4</a></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4">The ACLU is filing suit and <a href="https://www.aclu.org/bio/cecillia-wang" style="color:rgb(0,90,170);text-decoration:none;font-family:gtam,Arial,Helvetica,"Nimbus Sans L",sans-serif" target="_blank">Cecillia Wang</a><span style="color:rgb(66,58,56);font-family:gtam,Arial,Helvetica,"Nimbus Sans L",sans-serif">, ACLU Deputy Legal Director</span><span style="color:rgb(66,58,56);font-family:gtam,Arial,Helvetica,"Nimbus Sans L",sans-serif"> </span>said:</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><p style="color:rgb(66,58,56);margin:0px 0px 1.33333rem;font-family:cschoolbook,Georgia,"Times New Roman","DejaVu Serif",serif;font-size:19.999980926513672px">"Trump’s declaration damages the rule of law and violates the constitutional checks and balances that protect us, the people, from a president’s abuse of power. The Constitution provides that Congress has the power to spend federal funds — our taxpayer dollars. And Congress has enacted <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/2808" style="color:rgb(0,90,170);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">a law</a> that gives the president <em>limited</em> power to spend federal funds without a congressional appropriation when he declares a national emergency. That law lets the president spend taxpayer money on military construction when “necessary to support” the emergency use of armed forces.</p><p style="color:rgb(66,58,56);margin:0px 0px 1.33333rem;font-family:cschoolbook,Georgia,"Times New Roman","DejaVu Serif",serif;font-size:19.999980926513672px">What Trump is doing is patently illegal, because there is no emergency. He even admitted it himself during his press conference today: “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”</p><p style="color:rgb(66,58,56);margin:0px 0px 1.33333rem;font-family:cschoolbook,Georgia,"Times New Roman","DejaVu Serif",serif;font-size:19.999980926513672px">And that’s the truth.</p><p style="color:rgb(66,58,56);margin:0px 0px 1.33333rem;font-family:cschoolbook,Georgia,"Times New Roman","DejaVu Serif",serif;font-size:19.999980926513672px">Three weeks ago, Trump announced that if Congress didn’t give him what he wanted, he would declare a national emergency. This week, Congress reached a bipartisan deal to avert another government shutdown and appropriated $1.375 billion for the border wall. President Trump disagrees with Congress’s decision and wants to spend more. That is not an emergency. It’s an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress’s spending power by the president."</p><p style="color:rgb(66,58,56);margin:0px 0px 1.33333rem;font-family:cschoolbook,Georgia,"Times New Roman","DejaVu Serif",serif;font-size:19.999980926513672px">Read the entire statement here:<a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/executive-branch/there-no-national-emergency-border-and-trumps-declaration-illegal" target="_blank" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">https://www.aclu.org/blog/executive-branch/there-no-national-emergency-border-and-trumps-declaration-illegal</a></p><div><img src="cid:ii_js9c9ad10" alt="ACLU email logo copy.jpg" width="466" height="220"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>