Article 1 Section 8 of the Articles of Confederation declares that Congress has the sole power to declare War while Article 2 Section 2 gives the President the power to wage war and states that “The President shall be Commander in Chief” (p.A17). These powers are specifically delegated in order to dictate where the legislative power ends and where the president’s power begins. In James Madison’s letter to Thomas Jefferson he implies that those two articles were possibly the most important by suggesting that because history had shown that the executive branch is “the most interested and most prone to [waging war]”, then it should be a power reserved for the legislative branch (press-pubs.uchicago.edu). The War Powers Act of 1973 furthered the …show more content…
The questions of whether or not the President has authority to use the military without congress first having declared war has proven to be a great source of conflict throughout history. The confusion comes from the different interpretations of the clauses. Since the Korean War, it has been accepted that the executive powers are that “The president has the power to initiate hostilities without consulting Congress” (libertyclassroom.com). This is often misinterpreted and has been used to expand executive authority and essentially make war without a congressional declaration of war. Perhaps the first example of this misuse of power dates back to the presidency of John Adams. In 1798, he was authorized by congress to seize any vessels that were sailing to French ports, however, he acted unilaterally and ordered for any ship sailing to or from a French port to be seized and thus started the still undeclared Quasi War (libertyclassroom.com). Also, in June 1950, at the beginning of the Korean War, Harry Truman decided to deploy American forces to Korea without congressional approval just because he deemed it as an emergency (p.321). This wasn’t the first or last time a president had over expanded his constitutional powers, however Congress eventually began to try and combat
In 1763, the British issued a Royal Proclamation. This proclamation established “an ‘Indian Country’ where aboriginal land was protected from encroachment. The land had to be voluntarily ceded to the Crown before non- aboriginal settlers could occupy it.” Stony Point Reserve, located near Lake Huron, Ontario was protected under the Royal Proclamation.
The poor drafting of the WPR since the sections of the War Powers Resolution does not mention for example any procedures or what the congress can do when the president choose not to comply with the resolution. In addition the Congress unwillingness to enforced it over the years made it unsuccessful to be fully functional, that is why the United States Presidents had exploited some faults in the War Powers Resolution to undermine it, however the Congress, has the absolute powers to enforce it yet they did not, and so the WPR came through ups and downs due to its disadvantageous text and vagueness and resulted in ongoing tug of war in the Congress itself between the House and the Senate (Teacher. Law, 2013). If we look to the main function behind
Back in the 19th century, specifically May 25, 1861, when Lincoln was the president of the United States, he had an instance when he was the imperial president. During the civil war, many Southern supporters were disrupting the war efforts of the Northern side. Lincoln saw this as a problem because it was slowing the Northern sides war efforts and it was making the North lose the war. His solution to this was an automatic suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, basically suspending any citizens right to a trial or judicial review and sending them straight to jail. This was a big abuse of power due to the fact that only five years later was this reviewed and it was discovered that only Congress had the power to suspend the writ and the president has no jurisdiction over that.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973, more commonly known as the War Powers Act, requires that the President of the United States must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending any of the troops into armed action. The Resolution also prohibits any military personnel from being in a state of war for more than sixty days. This also includes an additional thirty days for withdrawing troops from conflict. After this time period has past, the President is urged to seek a further approval from Congress or a formal declaration of war.
The Articles of Confederation or Perpetual union established a unicameral Congress dominated by the state legislatures that appointed its members (there was no national executive or judiciary). The Congress had little authority. It could ask the states for money, but could not levy taxes; it could neither regulate foreign or interstate commerce nor pay off the nation’s debts; it could approve treaties with other nations but had no power to enforce their provisions; it could call for the raising of an army but could not fill the ranks. The United States was governed under the Articles of Confederation between 1781 and 1787. Because of these, the Congress had less power than it had previously.
The War Measures Act was declared for the third time in Canadian history (but for the first time for domestic use in the country) for the October Crisis in 1970. The terrorist group Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the British trade commissioner James Cross and The Quebec Labour Minister, Pierre Laporte and the group also murdered Pierre Laporte. This crisis shocked everyone and it led to the command of the War Measures Act. Pierre Trudeau’s decision to pass the War Measures Act was a very necessary and a strong step due to the acts of terrorism. I agree that his decision was right and the act was justified because of three reasons which are that the act dealt with the greatest terrorist attack in Canadian history, the majority
Many of the people who argue from different perspectives focus on the key words in the constitution to make their arguments stronger. John Yoo contends that declaring war is the mechanism of authorization as it is stated in the constitution. Thus, the president is commander in chief whose purpose is to control the war after the decision is made. He tries to make his argument more clear by showing that Congress is the “sole authority to engage the nation in war” (Yoo).I disagree with Yoo’s argument because being commander in chief of the armed forces is a significant authority; moreover the constitution gives the authority to the president to send soldiers to foreign countries in case there is an urgent situation that may require the armed forces. In addition to that, Turner claims that in the original constitution the term. "to make War" was used which gives essentially all powers related to war beyond the actual command of troops, as had been the case under the Articles of Confederation.
During the Second World War, he apprehended all Japanese individuals on the West coast, whether they were U.S. citizen or not, based on the suspicion that they were spies for Japan. This was an executive order that was not passed by Congress. Also, he sent the military to Korea for three years, seized steel companies, and increased the armed forces for the Korean War. All of these actions were done discreetly and without the knowledge of Congress. By doing these things, Harry Truman displayed power that one single individual should not have in this country.
How much power the president has to act alone in matters involving national security has been an ongoing topic of
However, “the last time Congress declared war was December 8, 1941, but U.S. troops have been sent into action many times since that date.” Furthermore, presidents have begun to question the relevancy of the Constitutional distribution of war powers, and they have authorized their own actions without the Congressional approval. In “Federalist Paper 69,” Alexander Hamilton wrote “the President will have only the occasional command of such part of the militia of the nation as by legislative provision may be called into the actual service of the Union.”
Regardless, the Chief Executives have seemed to found that a formal declaration is not required. War Powers Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution assigns Congress the power to declare war. The President, meanwhile, derives the power to direct the military after a Congressional declaration of war from Article II, Section 2, which names the President Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. These
In Article 2, section 2 of the Constitution, it states that the president is seen as the commander and chief of the military and that he had the authority to make deals and treaties with the input of the Senate and under the Constitution, the Congress is approved to increase and support armies, which was something quite different than before, when the Confederation was in place. When more power was handed over to the government by the president, they were able to have more authority to govern over its constituencies and to make sure that the nation was safe from any danger both within and outside the United
Was the enactment of the War Measures Act during the October Crisis Justified? When one thinks of a terrorist attack, Canada is not usually the first one to come to mind. Canada is usually regarded as a very peaceful country. But Canada was not always peaceful internally; in fact it had raging internal battles with the French wanting independence.
The constitution attempts to evenly distribute powers between the executive and legislative branches of the federal government by providing the president or the commander-in-chief the power to control and supervise the military upon approval by congress, who have the power to declare war and to support the armed forces. The subject of debate regarding the act is whether the president has the authority to send military troops to war without congressional approval. The way the war powers act was written makes it difficult to decipher approximately how much power is the president privileged in the war-making process. According to the constitution congress have the powers to authorize war by formally granting letters that verify and confirm the
The first article of the Constitution says "ALL legislative powers...shall be vested in a Congress." The second article then reads "the executive power...in a President." The third article gives the "judicial power of the United States in one Supreme Court" and "in such inferior Courts as the Congress...may establish."