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Compare And Contrast The War Powers Act Of 1973

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Article 1 Section 8 of the Articles of Confederation declares that Congress has the sole power to declare War while Article 2 Section 2 gives the President the power to wage war and states that “The President shall be Commander in Chief” (p.A17). These powers are specifically delegated in order to dictate where the legislative power ends and where the president’s power begins. In James Madison’s letter to Thomas Jefferson he implies that those two articles were possibly the most important by suggesting that because history had shown that the executive branch is “the most interested and most prone to [waging war]”, then it should be a power reserved for the legislative branch (press-pubs.uchicago.edu). The War Powers Act of 1973 furthered the …show more content…

The questions of whether or not the President has authority to use the military without congress first having declared war has proven to be a great source of conflict throughout history. The confusion comes from the different interpretations of the clauses. Since the Korean War, it has been accepted that the executive powers are that “The president has the power to initiate hostilities without consulting Congress” (libertyclassroom.com). This is often misinterpreted and has been used to expand executive authority and essentially make war without a congressional declaration of war. Perhaps the first example of this misuse of power dates back to the presidency of John Adams. In 1798, he was authorized by congress to seize any vessels that were sailing to French ports, however, he acted unilaterally and ordered for any ship sailing to or from a French port to be seized and thus started the still undeclared Quasi War (libertyclassroom.com). Also, in June 1950, at the beginning of the Korean War, Harry Truman decided to deploy American forces to Korea without congressional approval just because he deemed it as an emergency (p.321). This wasn’t the first or last time a president had over expanded his constitutional powers, however Congress eventually began to try and combat

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In 1763, the British issued a Royal Proclamation. This proclamation established “an ‘Indian Country’ where aboriginal land was protected from encroachment. The land had to be voluntarily ceded to the Crown before non- aboriginal settlers could occupy it.” Stony Point Reserve, located near Lake Huron, Ontario was protected under the Royal Proclamation.

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In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria. Chapter one, coming to America touches on the authors personal experiences with Liberal Education. He tells his background of getting into college and the differences in college in America and college where he is from. Zakaria is from India, He eventually moved on to attend Yale university and major in History. His parents both started small and moved up in the education world, and they never was up his butt about specializing in something to do with his career.

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The poor drafting of the WPR since the sections of the War Powers Resolution does not mention for example any procedures or what the congress can do when the president choose not to comply with the resolution. In addition the Congress unwillingness to enforced it over the years made it unsuccessful to be fully functional, that is why the United States Presidents had exploited some faults in the War Powers Resolution to undermine it, however the Congress, has the absolute powers to enforce it yet they did not, and so the WPR came through ups and downs due to its disadvantageous text and vagueness and resulted in ongoing tug of war in the Congress itself between the House and the Senate (Teacher. Law, 2013). If we look to the main function behind

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The War Powers Act does work within the constitutional authority of congress. The act was passed on November seventh 1993. The law is a law that is intended to limit the presidential power usage of the military. It limits the power of the president and makes the president go through congress first before making any major decisions. It is a very controversial topic with the citizens whether think the War Powers act is right or wrong.

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The Articles of Confederation or Perpetual union established a unicameral Congress dominated by the state legislatures that appointed its members (there was no national executive or judiciary). The Congress had little authority. It could ask the states for money, but could not levy taxes; it could neither regulate foreign or interstate commerce nor pay off the nation’s debts; it could approve treaties with other nations but had no power to enforce their provisions; it could call for the raising of an army but could not fill the ranks. The United States was governed under the Articles of Confederation between 1781 and 1787. Because of these, the Congress had less power than it had previously.

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529 Words | 3 Pages

Back in the 19th century, specifically May 25, 1861, when Lincoln was the president of the United States, he had an instance when he was the imperial president. During the civil war, many Southern supporters were disrupting the war efforts of the Northern side. Lincoln saw this as a problem because it was slowing the Northern sides war efforts and it was making the North lose the war. His solution to this was an automatic suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, basically suspending any citizens right to a trial or judicial review and sending them straight to jail. This was a big abuse of power due to the fact that only five years later was this reviewed and it was discovered that only Congress had the power to suspend the writ and the president has no jurisdiction over that.

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There were two sides to the Great Debate: the Federalist who wanted to ratify the Constitution and the Anti-Federalist who opposed the ratification of the Constitution. Although the Constitution was eventually ratified and made effective in 1789 it did not end the debate between these two parties. The Anti-Federalist party was short-lived following the founding of the new government. However, it served as the precursor of the Jeffersonian Republican party which is also known as the Democratic-Republican Party. In the next quarter century, political tension would be between the deep-rooted Federalists and the emerging Jeffersonian Republicans.

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Was the enactment of the War Measures Act during the October Crisis Justified? When one thinks of a terrorist attack, Canada is not usually the first one to come to mind. Canada is usually regarded as a very peaceful country. But Canada was not always peaceful internally; in fact it had raging internal battles with the French wanting independence.

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The War Powers Resolution of 1973, more commonly known as the War Powers Act, requires that the President of the United States must inform Congress within 48 hours of sending any of the troops into armed action. The Resolution also prohibits any military personnel from being in a state of war for more than sixty days. This also includes an additional thirty days for withdrawing troops from conflict. After this time period has past, the President is urged to seek a further approval from Congress or a formal declaration of war.

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The War Measures Act was declared for the third time in Canadian history (but for the first time for domestic use in the country) for the October Crisis in 1970. The terrorist group Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the British trade commissioner James Cross and The Quebec Labour Minister, Pierre Laporte and the group also murdered Pierre Laporte. This crisis shocked everyone and it led to the command of the War Measures Act. Pierre Trudeau’s decision to pass the War Measures Act was a very necessary and a strong step due to the acts of terrorism. I agree that his decision was right and the act was justified because of three reasons which are that the act dealt with the greatest terrorist attack in Canadian history, the majority

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Comparing to the economic aspect, the Congress did have some control over the diplomacy aspect which includes “the power to declare war and make peace, to make treaties and alliances … [and] appoint the senior officers of the U.S army.” (Ginsberg, et. al. 2014:35) These powers, basically, were the extended version of previous Continental Congress’s power.

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During the Second World War, he apprehended all Japanese individuals on the West coast, whether they were U.S. citizen or not, based on the suspicion that they were spies for Japan. This was an executive order that was not passed by Congress. Also, he sent the military to Korea for three years, seized steel companies, and increased the armed forces for the Korean War. All of these actions were done discreetly and without the knowledge of Congress. By doing these things, Harry Truman displayed power that one single individual should not have in this country.

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As far back as 1789, Congress set the stage for the president to act unilaterally by giving President Washington the ability to fire members of his cabinet. President Washington also used other tools available such as memoranda, executive orders and vetoes (35). President Thomas Jefferson pushed the boundaries of power when he acted alone ordering the Louisiana Purchase. President Jefferson also put the country in the First Barbary War, which was an undeclared war. This has become a trend throughout U.S. history with only five of the two hundred plus foreign conflicts that involved military actions being considered declared wars.

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479 Words | 2 Pages

The constitution attempts to evenly distribute powers between the executive and legislative branches of the federal government by providing the president or the commander-in-chief the power to control and supervise the military upon approval by congress, who have the power to declare war and to support the armed forces. The subject of debate regarding the act is whether the president has the authority to send military troops to war without congressional approval. The way the war powers act was written makes it difficult to decipher approximately how much power is the president privileged in the war-making process. According to the constitution congress have the powers to authorize war by formally granting letters that verify and confirm the

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The first article of the Constitution says "ALL legislative powers...shall be vested in a Congress." The second article then reads "the executive power...in a President." The third article gives the "judicial power of the United States in one Supreme Court" and "in such inferior Courts as the Congress...may establish."

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