Article One, Section Eight of the U.S.
Constitution vests the power “to declare war” in the hands of
Congress. But as the world now knows, President Barack Obama took
it upon himself last night to launch an undeclared
war against ISIS in Syria. Just like President George W. Bush
before him, Obama believes his vast war powers as commander in
chief trump whatever old-fashioned limitations the text of the
Constitution happens to impose on the presidency.
This is not Obama’s first undeclared war, of course. That would
be his 2011 war in Libya, which he also launched after refusing to
obtain congressional authorization as required by the Constitution.
Nor is it Obama’s only unilateral exercise of unprecedented
executive power. That
list of
misdeeds is
growing too long to summarize in a short blog post. As Obama
himself
bragged in January 2014, “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a
phone…. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take
executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball
forward.”
Perhaps our next president will keep a copy of the Constitution
on his desk as well.
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1uVogDi
via IFTTT