The 60-day fiction: Why the War Powers clock doesn’t bind the president in Iran |
The 60-day fiction: Why the War Powers clock doesn’t bind the president in Iran
Many Democrats in Congress, and recently even some Republicans, have said May 1 marked a legal 60-day deadline by which President Trump must either obtain congressional authorization for continued military action in Iran or withdraw U.S. forces. They’re incorrect.
When Congress enacted the War Powers Resolution of 1973, it authorized a president to commit military forces into “hostilities” abroad for up to 60 days. At that point, the president must “terminate” the engagement unless Congress has expressly authorized it.
May 1 marked the 60-day deadline for Trump’s military action in Iran. The 60-day deadline is a legislative aspiration by which Congress pre-emptively sought to limit a president’s judgment as the constitutional commander in chief. As a matter of constitutional law, it does not bind the president, and it is particularly misplaced in the current conflict with Iran.
Article II of the Constitution makes Trump the commander in chief. Once U.S. forces are engaged in armed conflict, the Constitution assigns to the president, not Congress, responsibility for determining strategy, directing operations, and deciding when and how hostilities should conclude. The Constitution gives Congress formidable tools — most notably the power of the purse and ultimately impeachment — to rein in a president who exceeds his brief, but Congress has no business imposing arbitrary deadlines on the conduct of military operations.
Presidential practice underscores the point. Richard Nixon vetoed the War Powers Resolution on the grounds it would impose “unconstitutional and dangerous” restrictions on the president’s........