Blog/Rule of Law
Posted Mar 31, 2022 by Martin Armstrong
The Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 specifically lists as a power of Congress – the power “to declare War,” which unquestionably gives the legislature the power to initiate hostilities. The extent to which this clause limits the President’s ability to use any force without Congress’s affirmative approval remains highly contested. Can the president order a biological attack without sending in troops? Can the president launch a missile without ground troops? Can a president seize all the reserves of a country as he did to Russia without troops? The definition of “WAR” needs to be defined today by the Supreme Court. It is time to address that clause!
Even in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, Congress authorized the President to use force against those who launched the attacks and those who supported or assisted them. Bush did not invade Iraq without the permission of Congress despite the fact that was wrong. They conducted Congressional investigations into FDR who was accused of imposing sanctions on Japan without the authority of Congress to compel the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor because Congress would not issue a Declaration of War to enter WWII. There should be a Congressional investigation right now into Biden’s abuse of Executive Orders.
The definition of the Declare War Clause is unsettled in part because there have been very few judicial decisions interpreting it. In the Prize Cases 67 US 635 (1863), the Supreme Court upheld as a defensive measure President Lincoln’s blockade of the southern states following their attack on Fort Sumter but was ambiguous as to whether the authority for the blockade came from Article II, from specific statutes Congress had passed in 1795 and 1807, or some combination of both. And in dicta, the Court noted that the President could not begin hostilities without Congress’ approval.
Before that, the Supreme Court ruled in Bas v. Tingy, 4 U.S. 37 (1800), which referred generally to Congress’s broad powers over war-making without giving specific guidance on the President’s power. Consequently, courts have generally stayed away from making decisions with regard to the Declare War Clause often dodging the question using “standing” or the “political question doctrine” which has been to the detriment of the nation as a whole. Biden can destroy the economy and cause the death of people’s children without having a declaration of war. That is unacceptable if he always whats to pretend this is a democracy where the PEOPLE make such decisions, not a dictator.
This is a very serious question that the Supreme Court should address and we desperately need someone like the American Civil Liberties Union to move to block the sanctions imposed on Russia by Biden as UNCONSTITUTIONAL under the Declare War Clause for this has been an outright declaration of war against Russia which ONLY Congress can authorize. For all the bullshit that Biden is spewing all over the airwaves that this is a battle between Democracy and Autocracy, he is being a hypocrite and is no better than what he claims of Putin. The Constitution delegated that power to the PEOPLE, not the President unilaterally using executive orders to circumvent Congress and the very foundation of Democracy he claims to be defending.
Biden is a threat to our National Security and what he has done has DESTROYED the world economy dividing it now in half ending globalization. Russia demands payment in Rubles and China demands to buy emerging from Saudi Arabia in yuan Biden is ending the dollar as the world reserve currency and he has undermined the SWIFT system altogether.
These unilateral actions of Biden without Congressional Approval will now reduce world GDP from here on out all because of his abuse of power. This gives us all standing for even the White House is now trying to blame inflation on Putin. ONLY Congress has the authority to do what Biden has done putting the entire world at risk. The Neocons constantly pull off these proxy wars that also circumvent the people and Congress.
If Russia blocked the US from SWIFT and called for the overthrow of the President, that would be sufficient grounds to declare war by Congress. That would be a direct attack against the existence of the United States. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that the U.S. and other western nations have declared “total war” against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine against the civil war that has been covertly supported and funded by the United States. We have to respect that Russia would be justified in launching a Total War against Europe and the United States just as the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in response to similar sanctions that included also seizing all Japanese assets in the United States all before Pearl Harbor.
The Neocons have not even tried to hide the fact that advocate a Proxy War with Russia. This is UNCONSTITUTIONAL for they too are circumventing the Constitutional Authority by bypassing the Declare War Clause. Lavrov made it clear that the United States has entered a “real hybrid war, total war was declared on us,” as the Associated Press reported. This is the truth and the question here is that this is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and the Supreme Court needs to address this usurpation of power. The people have NOT authorized even a Proxy War no less sanctions against Russia.
Lavrov defined the goal of this “Total War” declared by the west as “to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia on the whole.”
He is absolutely correct. Russia was once a communist state where its economic theory sought to impose on the entire world just as Klaus Schwab is doing right now through the World Economic Forum and the “Great Reset” which required the submission of the entire world just as Khruschev once said. Those days are gone but the Neocons need an enemy and despite the fact that Russia is no longer a communist threat, they do not care – Russia will always be their enemy.
The US has gone way too far and we have these endless wars that the American people are tired of. Nevertheless, we have people like Biden cleverly circumventing the Constitution usurping powers that were delegated to the people. The reason taxes must be approved by Congress is because the King NEVER had the power to tax without the CONSENT of the people. And that was asking the people to be taxed to defend the nation against an invader – not for social programs. In Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980) the Supreme Court held that the Constitution is NEGATIVE meaning it is a restraint upon government. It is NOT a POSITIVE document meaning people have some right to everything they can dream up for a social program. Hence, Biden is to be restrained – not unleashed to do whatever he likes.
That is why the American Revolution was fought. The American colonies were NOT represented in Parliament and historically the people could NOT be taxed without their CONSENT. Biden has launched a war against Russia without the CONSENT of the people. He should be impeached for an UNCONSTITUTIONAL usurpation of power.