Podcast: Can Obama attack ISIL without congressional approval?
President Barack Obama has made his case for acting against the terrorist group ISIL. But for the past week, constitutional experts have been debating the President’s actions and their apparent conflict with a law that requires him to ask for direct congressional permission before a prolonged military action.
The War Powers Resolution says that a President must report to Congress within 48 hours after introducing military forces into hostilities and must end the use of such forces within 60 days unless Congress permits otherwise.
Since Congress passed the act in 1973, most Presidents have considered it unconstitutional or ignored many of its provisions. And that has caused considerable constitutional tension between the executive and legislative branches in some situations where American military forces were sent overseas.
Last week, President Obama made it clear in a national address that he believed he had the power to act on the ISIL threat without Congress.
Joining us to look at the past conflicts over the War Powers Resolution, and the current situation involving President Obama and Congress are two of the leading experts on executive powers in time of war.
Iyla Somin is Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law. From 2006 to 2013, Professor Somin served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals. He is also a frequent contributor to the popular Volokh Conspiracy blog.
John Yoo is the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. Professor Yoo has written frequently about the War Powers Resolution, and from 2001 to 2003, he served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.
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