9/15/2023 0 Comments What is congress's responsibility when a president sends troops into armed conflict?![]() Congress recognized Polk’s move as a de facto declaration of war with Mexico, which claimed the territory as its own and vowed to defend it against an American “invasion.”Ĭongress ultimately granted Polk an official declaration of war, allowing for sustained military action. army to occupy territory in the newly annexed state of Texas. In 1846, President James Polk ordered the U.S. It didn't take long before Congress and the president would clash over war powers. In the early days of the United States, the understanding was that the president could order the military to defend the country against an attack, but that any sustained military action would require congressional approval. Madison was no fan of executive overreach-“the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war and most prone to it,” he wrote to Thomas Jefferson-but that change of wording in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution implied that the president, as commander in chief (Article II, Section 2), retained certain powers to “make” war, if not declare it himself. So instead of granting Congress the power to “make” war, as was first proposed, founders like James Madison changed the language to “declare” war. When the Constitution was being written and debated, the framers clearly wanted to break from the British political tradition of investing all war powers in the executive (the king), but they also knew that legislatures could be dangerously slow to respond to immediate military threats. “The history of war powers has been a history of disputes between branches about what the meaning of ‘war’ is, what the meaning of Congress’s authority over war is, and what kinds of actions do and don’t count as war,” says Mariah Zeisberg, associate professor of law and politics at the University of Michigan, and author of War Powers: The Politics of Constitutional Authority. In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution states that “Congress shall have the power… To declare war.” But that simple statement has left room for interpretation, and centuries of American presidents have claimed the right to launch military attacks without congressional approval. The United States Constitution is clear about which branch of government has the power to declare war. ![]()
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