Within the wake of the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear amenities on June 22, 2025, many congressional Democrats and some Republicans have objected to President Donald Trump’s failure to seek congressional approval earlier than conducting army operations.
They notice that Article 1 of the U.S. Structure offers Congress the power to declare war and say that part required Trump to hunt prior authorization for army motion.
The Trump administration disagrees. “This is not a war against Iran,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio advised Fox Information host Maria Bartiromo, implying that the motion didn’t require approval by Congress. That’s the identical view held by most fashionable presidents and their legal professionals within the Workplace of Authorized Counsel: Article 2 of the Constitution permits the president to make use of the army in sure conditions with out prior approval from Congress.
By this studying of the textual content, presidents, as commander in chief, declare the ability to unilaterally order the army to provoke small-scale operations for a brief length. Members of Congress might object to that declare, however they’ve accomplished little to restrict presidents’ unilateralism. What little they’ve accomplished has not been effective.
As I’ve demonstrated in my research, although the 1973 War Powers Resolution tried to constrain presidential energy after the disasters of the Vietnam Struggle, it contains many loopholes that presidents have exploited to behave unilaterally. For instance, it permits presidents to interact in army operations with out congressional approval for as much as 90 days. And newer congressional resolutions have broadened govt management even additional.
U.S. National Archives
An extended custom of govt authority
Presidents may even overcome the loopholes within the Struggle Powers Decision if the operation lasts longer than 90 days. In 2011, a State Division lawyer argued that airstrikes in Libya may proceed beyond the War Powers Resolution’s 90-day time limit as a result of there have been no floor troops concerned. By that logic, any future president may perform an indefinite bombing marketing campaign with no congressional oversight.
Whereas each president has bristled at congressional restraints on their actions, presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt have efficiently circumvented them by citing obscure considerations like “national security,” “regional security” or the need to “prevent a humanitarian disaster” when launching army operations. Whereas members of Congress always take issue with these actions, they never hold presidents accountable by passing legislation restraining him.
President Trump’s resolution to bomb Iranian nuclear websites with out consulting Congress falls in keeping with precedent from each Democratic and Republican leaders for many years.
Very similar to his predecessors, Trump did not, and sure won’t, present Congress with extra concrete details about the legality of his actions. Nor are congressional lawmakers effectively holding him accountable.
The push-and-pull between Congress and the president over army operations dates again to the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, which led Congress to declare warfare on Japan. Earlier than then, Congress had prevented the U.S. from becoming a member of World Struggle II by enforcing an arms embargo and refusing to assist the Allies previous to the assault on Hawaii. However afterward, Congress started allowing the president to take more control over the military.
In the course of the Chilly Struggle, quite than returning to a balanced debate between the branches, Congress continued to relinquish those powers.
Congress by no means approved the warfare in Korea; Harry Truman used a U.N. Security Council resolution as authorized justification. Congress’ vote explicitly opposing the invasion of Cambodia didn’t stop Richard Nixon from doing it anyway. Even after the Chilly Struggle, Invoice Clinton commonly acted unilaterally to address humanitarian crises or the continued threat from leaders like Saddam Hussein. He despatched the army to Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo, amongst different locations.
After 9/11, Congress shortly gave up extra of its energy. Per week after these assaults, Congress handed a sweeping Authorization for Use of Military Force, giving the president permission to “use all necessary and appropriate force towards these nations, organizations, or individuals he determines deliberate, approved, dedicated, or aided the terrorist assaults that occurred on September 11, 2001.”
In a follow-up 2002 authorization, Congress went even additional, permitting the president to “use the Armed Forces … as he determines to be necessary and appropriate to be able to defend nationwide safety … towards the persevering with risk posed by Iraq.” This strategy provides few, if any, congressional checks on the management of army affairs exercised by the president.
Within the twenty years since these authorizations, 4 presidents have used them to justify all method of army motion, from targeted killings of terrorists to the years long fight against the Islamic State group.
Congress commonly discusses terminating those authorizations, however has but to take action. If Congress did, the loopholes within the unique Struggle Powers Decision would nonetheless exist.
Whereas President Biden claimed he supported the repeal of the authorizations, and supported more congressional oversight of military actions, Trump has made no such claims. As an alternative, he has claimed much more sweeping authority to behave with none permission from Congress.
As lately as 2024, Biden used the 2002 authorization as a legal rationale for the targeted killing of Iranian-backed militiamen in Iraq, a strike condemned by Iraqi leaders.
These actions might have ruffled congressional feathers, however they had been in line with an extended U.S. custom of focusing on members of terrorist teams and defending members of the army serving in a battle zone.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Threats of warfare
Throughout his first presidential time period in 2020, Trump ordered a lethal drone strike against a respected member of the Iranian government, Main Normal Qassim Soleimani, the top of Iran’s equal of the CIA, with out consulting Congress or publicly providing proof of why the attack was necessary, even to this day.
Tensions – and fears of warfare – spiked but then slowly faded when Iran responded with missile attacks on two U.S. bases in Iraq.
Now, the U.S. assaults on Iranian nuclear websites have revived each fears of warfare and renewed questions concerning the president’s authority to unilaterally interact in army motion. Presidents for the reason that Nineteen Seventies, nonetheless, have successfully managed to dodge definitive solutions to these questions – demonstrating each the ability inherent of their place and the unwillingness amongst members of the legislative department to reclaim their coequal standing.
This text is an updated version of a story published on Jan. 24, 2024.
