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Is there any provision within the US Constitution whereby the President can declare a state of emergency, suspending the powers of the judiciary/congress to override executive actions.
What happened during WW2 that permitted the detention of people of Japanese descent etc?
In Britain the Defence of the Realm Act gave vast powers to the Government during war years, such that the Minister of Labour and National Service virtually had enough power to command any adult person to work anywhere.
The USA is in a state of emergency, and has been since the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001. The state of emergency was declared by former President G. W. Bush:
Proclamation 7463—Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks
A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.
Now, Therefore, I, George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I hereby declare that the national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001, and, pursuant to the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), I intend to utilize the following statutes: sections 123, 123a, 527, 2201(c), 12006, and 12302 of title 10, United States Code, and sections 331, 359, and 367 of title 14, United States Code.
[...]
Since then it has been extended every year, the last time by President Obama.
No, there is no provision in the U.S. Constitution for the president to declare a state of emergency. The constitutional powers of the president are in Article 2, Section 2.
As noted in the current national state of emergency declaration in adjan's answer (Proclamation 7463), Title 50, Chapter 34 of the United States Code covers the current mechanism for declaring and terminating states of emergency (first introduced into law as the National Emergencies Act of 1976). Other parts of the law denote what can be done during a state of emergency; each of the sections cited in Proclamation 7463 for Titles 10 and 14 have to do with granting the president additional powers regarding personnel and resources for the military.
Since it is congressional law granting these emergency powers, congress could pass a law changing those powers. Congress also has the power to terminate a state of emergency, and is even required to conduct a review every 6 months during an emergency to consider termination (50 U.S. Code § 1622.
The internment of Japanese Americans during World War 2 was done with Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 and by Public Law 503 signed on March 9, 1942. It is worth noting that the U.S. was under a declaration of war, not simply a state of emergency.
All by himself? No. However, Congress has the right to suspend Habeas Corpus (the requirement that you can't arrest people without charging them with anything, which gets the court system involved), "when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."
Abraham Lincoln set an interesting precedent for this during the US Civil war, when he unilaterally did this, and started having political opponents arrested. Congress wasn't in session at the time, and lots of these people were attempting to take more states into the rebel camp, but some were just complaining about the suspension itself.
It was indeed an insurrection, but he wasn't Congress. The Supreme Court ruled his suspension invalid, but he just ignored them and kept doing it. Congress retroactively approved his actions, but not until the next session. So there was an entire year there where Lincoln was arguably acting as a military ruler of the country.
Is there any provision within the US Constitution whereby the President can declare a state of emergency, suspending the powers of the judiciary/congress to override executive actions.
No. There is nothing in the Constitution that empowers the President to curtail Legislative or Judicial powers. Though, sometimes appearances make it seem otherwise.
What happened during WW2 that permitted the detention of people of Japanese descent etc?
Even internment during a declared war (aside: a war is more serious than an emergency) involved the three branches of government.
Internment is highly unlikely today. More laws have been passed, and a great deal of case law has emerged that would prevent wholesale actions against a target group based on a shallow discriminator.
In Britain the Defence of the Realm Act gave vast powers to the Government during war years, such that the Minister of Labour and National Service virtually had enough power to command any adult person to work anywhere.
This wouldn't work in the US, either during WWII or now, as it would be blatantly unconstitutional.
My question with this current president, and the fact that the Republican House and Senate seem intent on protecting him from scrutiny as long as they get their way, would be what is to prevent the total take over of the government by the president? In the current state of affairs we have evidence that Russia did in fact hack some of our electoral processes whether Trump knew of it or not is a question yet to be answered. He has shown evidence of intolerance at our system of governance and would clearly prefer to be more of a dictator. It does not matter what the law or the constitution says, it only matters what can be enforced and by whom. With proper assistance the president can side step both congress and the courts.
