Why Trump didn’t have to ask Congress before striking Iran

Excerpt

President Donald Trump had the authority to order attacks on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities without seeking congressional approval first.

The claim to the contrary by several members of Congress contradicts decades of U.S. practice involving similar military deployments. Although the Constitution reserves to Congress the right to declare war, exercising that power requires the legislature to take positive action.

Geoffrey Corn is a professor of law at Texas Tech University School of Law and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who serves as an intelligence officer and military lawyer. Claire Finkelstein, Algernon Biddle professor of law and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, directs the university’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law. Orde Kittrie is a professor of law at Arizona State University and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.