INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF STATES OF EXCEPTION

Greetings! It is with deep humility and a strong sense of purpose that I formally welcome you to the Institute for the Study of States of Exception (ISSE). ISSE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing scholarship and dialogue on the misuse and abuse of states of exception worldwide–scenarios when laws or even entire constitutions are suspended under purported emergency circumstances, but in reality are intentionally framed improperly to enable democratic backsliding.

On August 29, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a May 2025 decision by the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) in V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. United States, which had held in favor of the plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgement, and determining that U.S. President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping tariffs was unlawful. While affirming the CIT’s decision, the Federal Circuit did however pause its ruling from taking effect until October 14, 2025, allowing tariffs to remain in place while the Trump administration seeks relief from the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision. Indeed on September 02, 2025, President Trump told reporters at the White House that he would seek an “expedited ruling” from the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn this decision. Given the doctrinal importance of the case, especially its implications for emergency powers, non-delegation, and the Major Questions Doctrine, it is likely that the Court would grant certiorari…

This book addresses the relevance of the state of exception for the analysis of law, while reflecting on the deeper symbolic and jurisprudential significance of the coalescence between law and force.

The concept of the state of exception has become a central topos in political and legal philosophy as well as in critical theory. The theoretical apparatus of the state of exception sharply captures the uneasy relationship between law, life and politics in the contemporary global setting, while also challenging the comforting narratives that uncritically connect democracy with the tradition of the rule of law. Drawing on critical legal theory, continental jurisprudence, political philosophy and history, this book explores the genealogy of the concept of the state of exception and reflects on its legal embodiment in past and present contexts – including Weimar and Nazi Germany, contemporary Europe and Turkey. In doing so, it explores the disruptive force of the exception for legal and political thought, as it recuperates its contemporary critical potential…

In this episode of “It’s the Law,” UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky breaks down the answer and explains that the Constitution is meant to limit what the government can do, and those limits apply to emergencies as well…

On 11 August 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the District of Columbia, placing the D.C. police department under federal control, and deploying the District of Columbia National Guard within the city. The White House also concurrently directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to coordinate with State Governors to authorize the orders of any additional members of other states’ National Guards to active service, as deemed necessary and appropriate to augment the President’s intent…

A week ago, President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet announced a takeover of law enforcement functions in Washington, D.C. using three tools: deployment of elements of the D.C. National Guard (and National Guard troops from several cooperating states as well), invocation of a statutory emergency power to requisition the services of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department, and a surge of federal law enforcement to the city’s streets, including Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other federal agents. Over the past week, 800 D.C. National Guardsmen have been mobilized for operations in the city, with hundreds more state National Guardsmen on their way, and 500 newly deployed immigration and other federal agents are patrolling the streets or have set up checkpoints. At the same time, the district and the White House have engaged in a power struggle over control of the city’s police department…

National emergencies are critical tools for addressing sudden and unforeseen events — often situations that require an immediate, decisive response to address. In our constitutional system, a national emergency declaration allows the president to temporarily use certain authorities that Congress has previously approved. Congress delegated this authority to the president because it sometimes cannot act quickly enough to respond to certain kinds of situations, such as natural disasters and public health emergencies. Upon declaring a national emergency, over 130 special authorities — such as the authority to shut down communications facilities or draw down equipment from national defense stockpiles— are immediately unlocked that enable a president to intervene in ways that are unavailable to them outside of an emergency declaration.

If you want to learn about economic sanctions, which are the most common of the president’s emergency powers, and one non-conflict way to exert pressure on a foreign power, check out New Hampshire Public Radio’s Civics 101 podcast episode on emergency powers. You’ll also learn about certain military powers the president has under an emergency declaration. Emergency powers are designed for when plans need to change, and fast, by allowing the president to override certain Constitutional provisions in a time of crisis. But in the last century, national emergencies have gone from a rarity to a tool that presidents use dozens of times while in office. We talk about what a president can (and cannot) do during a state of emergency, and how Congress has tried to put checks on that power, with help from Kim Lane Scheppele, author of Law in a Time of Emergency…