William Raspberry on Declaring war is a function of Congress:
A lot of us who have voiced bafflement and frustration over President Bush’s success in selling his logic for a war against Iraq have been strangely silent over the constitutionality of such an undertaking.
We’ve behaved as though the question of war is entirely a matter of presidential discretion.
Well, it isn’t – or at any rate, it shouldn’t be. It’s right there in the Constitution – Article I, Section 8, that Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war. Nor do I find anything to suggest that Congress may delegate its war-making authority to the president.
And yet the assumption is that the war on Iraq will begin when the president wants it to begin – perhaps with a heads-up to Congress that it has happened. Virtually everyone I know assumes that it’s the president’s call. The “Let’s roll!” warhawks assume it, the latter-day peaceniks assume it, the Congress itself assumes it. Which probably means that it is, at least in practical terms, a fact.
Of course, since Reagan, Daddy Bush, Clinton and all the other kiddies have broken the rules, little G.W. has no choice but to do the same. We wouldn't want to stand out by obeying that mean old Constitution thingie, now would we?
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This entry also posted at Stand Down.
Yes, only Congress is supposed to be able to declare war.
My latest blog post concerns the Iraq war; my posts have been opposing the war from a traditional conservative and pro-liberty perspective. How do bloggers get posting abilities on Stand Down, btw?
Posted by Aakash on January 7, 2003 07:28 PM
Aakash –
Try julian@juliansanchez.com for privileges.
Posted by matthew hogan on January 7, 2003 09:17 PM
Congress signed away those rights sometime last year. No worries that it’s unconstitutional….
Posted by The Littlest Cynic on January 7, 2003 11:01 PM
Like with the line item veto, congress doesn’t necessarily have the authority to sign away its rights. However this series of events doesn’t seem against the constitution to me. Congress appears to want to grant the president the ability to engage in war without them formally declaring a war. Since the constitution mentions other violent state acts (like privateering)that fall short of declarations of war, it seems reasonably that they could do that. Bush would need to get their permission anyway, and he did. So they are saying he can bomb the crap out of a few countries but he can’t formally have war powers.
No worries. Bush is breaking the constitution for plenty of other reasons.
Posted by DavidByron on January 8, 2003 01:22 AM
Bush could, in theory, call it a police action or some such thing, and not necesarily need the permission of Congress. The Constitution says declare war, not “send our troops to a foreign country”, or “save a foreign people from their dictator”, or however Bush feels like stating our action there.
Posted by Steven Adeff on January 9, 2003 01:30 AM
The constitution lists several methods of state violence against another state other than war but all of them are soley within the power of congress.
Posted by DavidByron on January 9, 2003 09:37 AM
This kind of appeal to the constitution, which I admit to quite frequently, intrigues me. I read something the other day which mentioned that Thomas Jefferson believed in the right to secession partly because he thought that, otherwise, the consitution would never be rewritten to reflect differences of circumstance. I don’t think the Founders believed the Constitution would gain the status of Bible.
That said, if our Congressmen got together to write a new one today, my heart quivers at the thought of what a statist doctrine it might turn out to be.
Posted by Alina Stefanescu on January 9, 2003 05:11 PM
Alina, as I understand it congress couldn’t replace the constitution, merely modify it with amendments (even then subject to state ratification).
Now if the 50 governors got together they would theoretically have the power to suspend the constitution and replace it into to with a second constitutional convention. After all – that’s what they did last time.
Posted by DavidByron on January 10, 2003 12:26 AM