War Powers: Congress or The Executive
Chapter 11 discussed the ins and outs of how the Congress of the United States functions. The chapter outlined the foundations of Congress, how it is related to democracy through its representative aspects, the logistics of the functionality of Congress including the forming and implementation of laws, and finally, the relationship between Congress and the Executive Branch of government in the United States. This final piece is what I would like to discuss. The chapter mentioned the term “enumerated powers” at the beginning. This represents the powers of congress that are explicitly written in the Constitution. These powers, compared to the implied powers of congress or implied powers of the executive are heavily debated and can be interpreted in many different ways. The one I will focus on is the war powers clause. This clause is an enumerated power that says Congress has the power to declare war. A widely accepted view of this, and the view that I am in agreement with, is that the Framers intended the clause to mean that Congress is the only body that can declare war, not the executive. However, this is not how the war powers clause has been implemented in recent years.
One example of this occurring was when Harry Truman ignored the war powers clause, as well as Congress, and went directly into war in South Korea against the North Koreans in 1950. Unfortunately, this set the precedent for executives to continue to disregard the clause and “have paid almost no attention to the constitutional requirements (What War Powers Does the President Have? slate.com).” While there have been numerous debates about who holds these powers, there is a great deal of evidence in the Constitutional Convention as well as in the state ratifying conventions that supports the fact that this power is invested in congress. For example, “James Wilson, second in importance to James Madison at the Convention, summed up the framers’ decision to grant the war power to Congress, rather than to the president, when he stated that the Constitution was designed to prevent ‘one man from hurrying us into war’ (blue review).” It is clear that the Framers wanted this power to lie with congress.
Even though I believe that the evidence is overwhelming in regards to denying the president of the power to declare war, this is still very present in our country today. Donald Trump has said “If [the United States] is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. (Unilateral Rocket Man, slate.com)” He is acting as if he alone has the power to decide to go to war against North Korea, but this is simply not true. As the Framers intended and as the law states, Trump does not have the power, alone, to send our country to war, he must get the permission of Congress beforehand. If he does engage in military action without the consent of Congress than he will be violating the Constitution of the United States.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/truman-orders-u-s-forces-to-korea-2