Comment & Debate
Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Walter Jones filed a lawsuit against President Obama in federal court against President Obama to “challenge the commitment of the United States to war in Libya absent the required constitutional legal authority […] the executive branch’s circumvention of Congress and its use of international organizations such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to authorize the use of military force abroad, in violation of the Constitution.”[1]
The Nation’s John Nichols explained that Obama’s unilateral decision “was a violation of the provision in the founding document that requires the executive to attain authorization from Congress before launching military adventures abroad.”[2]
Daniel Larison. “Yes, The Libyan War is Illegal.” Eunomia, The American Conservative. May 12th, 2011: “The Constitution did not vest the President with the power to start a war against another state (or anyone else) on his authority.”