On Saturday, President Donald Trump acted with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike top Iranian leadership and a variety of other targets, bypassing congressional authorization.
A new article by Ilya Somin, the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, details why this act is clearly unconstitutional, in part writing:
“Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power to declare war. Debates about the extent to which presidents can initiate relatively small-scale military actions have raged for decades. But this attack is very obviously large enough to qualify as a war. That means it just as obviously requires congressional authorization. Trump didn’t get any—in fact, he did not even try to do so.
Don’t take my word for the proposition that it’s a war. Take Trump’s! He himself has called it a war, and proclaimed that the objective is regime change.”
To speak with Somin about the constitutionality of the war in Iran, contact Christopher Tarvardian.
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