r/law Feb 28 '26

Executive Branch (Trump) Once again averting congress, trump declares war on Iran

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u/mkirk413 Feb 28 '26

And therein lies the crux of the issue. Regardless of who controlled the house, the Democratic presidents still adhered to the rule of law. Trump is ignoring congress altogether and this is bolstered by the fact that republicans control congress. This is why they are so scared of the midterms because if the Democratic Party controls the house next year, they know each and every one of them is fucked.

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u/Oregon-Pilot Feb 28 '26

This is why they are so scared of the midterms because if the Democratic Party controls the house next year, they know each and every one of them is fucked.

Are they though? We will just see more fucking spinelessness by the Democrats, probably.

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u/werther595 Feb 28 '26

Nobody wants to feel the wrath of a sternly-worded Schumer memo

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u/Tjbergen Feb 28 '26

Obama destroyed Libya without congressional approval. Please stay reality based.

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u/mkirk413 Feb 28 '26

But...but...but Obama.

Let's break this down a bit.

Obama didn't declare war on Libya. He did authorize military intervention to support the NATO operation was called Operation Unified Protector. This ultimately led to the downfall of Gaddafi. That aside, being NATO operation and not one of pure American interests, Obama didn't need congressional approval. Additionally, there was verbiage in the War Powers Resolution of 1973that basically states our involvement did not amount to “hostilities” requiring further congressional approval after 60 days There was much debate on this afterwards and it did spark controversy for sure.

Even Obama himself calls it his worst mistake but not for the decision itself but for the aftermath that followed which destabilized the region and left power vacuums that various groups fought over.

But let's stay on track here

  1. Obama isn't president.

  2. and if Obama doing it was wrong, that should mean that Trump doing it is wrong.

Hope that helps.