Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) criticized U.S.-led strikes on Yemen, saying they were “an unacceptable violation of the Constitution.”
“Article 1 requires that military action be authorized by Congress,” Jayapal added in her post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, late Thursday.
Other Democrats, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), also criticized the strikes.
While I agree, let’s not pretend that presidents haven’t been launching combat missions without formal declaration of war for decades. Longer than I’ve been alive. It’s one of the biggest expansions of executive power we have allowed, under the guise of “the war on terror”, “the cold war”, or even “the war on drugs”.
There’s not really any room to agree with her legally; she is categorically wrong. This action falls under previous standing military authorizations that Congress has passed.
If Congress has an issue with it, they can revoke them at any time. She can say that she thinks it’s wrong and that we shouldn’t have done it, but to say that it’s unconstitutional is just broadcasting an embarrassing lack of knowledge for a sitting member of Congress.
I guess I meant that those standing authorizations should not exist, as they effectively abdicate a power the Constitution outlined for Congress, transferring it to the President. They erode the checks and balances.
That’s an argument for Congress revoking it though, not for it being illegal.
To that end, I mostly do agree actually. It’s not a good idea for the President to have such vast unilateral military powers without prior Congressional oversight, but again, this was all done by Congress to begin with. They can repeal it at any time.
I’d argue that an unconstitutional law is itself illegal, and thus does not render an unconstitutional action legal. That said, I’m sure I’d lose any argument on the constitutionality of the war power granted by Congress to the President.
The truth is, our Constitution was written in a time when the world moved much more slowly. It’s unfortunately no longer practical to expect it to work in a world as fast paced as ours is today. We need a full rewrite, but I do not trust anyone to rewrite it.
She’s right and Biden should go to Congress. Unfortunately, Mike Johnson and the Fascist Bootlickers will make a stink about it. Still, she’s right and the President should always follow the Constitution.
If you were going to say something about this, the time would have been when Operation Prosperity Guardian was announced. The Houthis are directly firing on US warships, so the response could be considered defensive action and not fall under article 1 of the Constitution. It’s not that these representatives can’t criticize US involvement, but they were okay with the ships being there in the first place. Can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you were a sea woman/seaman being fired upon by cruise missiles, I’d imagine you’d like the ability to fire back and eliminate the threat. All it takes is one cruise missile or UAV to not get detected or destroyed to kill dozens if not hundreds of sailors.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Article 1 requires that military action be authorized by Congress,” Jayapal added in her post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, late Thursday.
“The President needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another middle east conflict,” Khanna posted on X.
“Today’s defensive action follows this extensive diplomatic campaign and Houthi rebels’ escalating attacks against commercial vessels,” Biden said.
“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes.”
“I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary,” Biden said.
Washington and London should bear the responsibility for militarizing the Red Sea,” the statement continues.
The original article contains 283 words, the summary contains 148 words. Saved 48%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
