By
Sam Milgrom, Washington Legislative Office at 10:57am
One thing is clear after the House of Representatives considered two measures regarding military action in Libya last Friday — the president does not have authority to take the United States to war there.
In March, we wrote to members of Congress to urge them to assert their role under the Constitution to decide whether or not the American military can be used in Libya. And we later wrote to the president himself urging him not to violate both the Constitution and the War Powers Act. After more than three months of American planes and drones in Libya, a presidential violation of the Constitution and the War Powers Act and a Congress that was too nervous to actually vote on anything, the House finally stepped up to the plate and asserted its constitutional authority to decide whether the country's military should be in Libya.
