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Inadvertent Implications Of The War Powers Resolution, Michael A. Newton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The constitutional infirmity of the War Powers Resolution has been uniformly demonstrated by more than four decades of bipartisan experience. The Resolution manifestly fails to eliminate the healthy interbranch tensions that are in our constitutional DNA with respect to military deployments. In its context, the override of President Nixon's veto represented little more than a stark act of congressional opportunism. The President's veto message was prescient in warning that the Resolution is dangerous to the best interests of our Nation. This article suggests that the act represents an attempted abdication of the enumerated obligation of Congress to oversee military operations …