As an attorney in the Trump White House, I remember pushback from allies as we considered declaring an emergency on the southern border. Conservatives tend to worry about the abuse of federal power, which caused generally supportive voices to raise concern that action based on an emergency declaration would set dangerous precedent.

“If you declare a border emergency, it will open the door to a climate emergency, an equity emergency, and so on,” they warned.

We took this warning seriously. Fortunately, federal law provides numerous safeguards, detailing what (limited) executive action is appropriate in case of a declared “emergency.” At the border, the emergency declaration merely enabled additional funding for border wall construction.

States do not generally have the same guardrails, which citizens in some states learned when COVID-19 struck. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for example, extended a pandemic emergency to prohibit Michiganders’ access to medical procedures, close schools and regulate almost every facet of life.

Citizens’ rights and freedoms suffered, with lasting impact today.

There’s a critical lesson for the Supreme Court as it considers whether former President Donald Trump can be removed from the ballot under the extraordinary authority of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment: Break-in-case-of-emergency power, particularly without legislative........

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