Drawing upon primary sources, including case law and Congressional legislation, as well as secondary commentaries, this report will move from an overview of constitutional enumeration of executive, legislative, and judiciary roles with respect to war powers to an exploration of each of these systems in different eras of United States history. The report will then explore the legislative reassertion of its constitutional war powers role and discuss the doctrinal development of the powers of the executive in times of war.

Constitutional Enumeration of Powers and Roles

Michael D. Ramsey (2002, 1543) states that when the U.S. Constitution was written, a "declaration" of war was understood to mean the initiating of military action as well as a formal declaration of war. When they met in Philadelphia in 1787, the Founders were in complete agreement that the power to declare war was to be exercised by the Congress and not the president (Collier and Collier 1986, 331). The Virginia Plan, which had been proposed at the Constitutional Convention, said nothing about wh

"Congressional Authorization and the War on

As harsh as Kassop's (2003, 512) criticism may be, it serves to illustrate an important point. In giving President Bush the authority to wage war without a great deal of Congressional oversight, Congress and not the Courts effectively undermined the War Powers Act of 1973, suspending its right (even obligation) to take the lead in declaring war.

Initiatives, Enactments, and Decisions, 1954-1972

Congressional declaration of war, but was unable to seize steel mills to prevent strikes from interrupting the flow of materials to the military in Korea. This does not constitute a particularly strong judicial response to what many members of Congress and the American public believed to be the excessive use of executive power to wage war.

Yoo, John C. 1996. "The Continuation of Politics by

Analysis of the Doctrinal Development

Declare War." Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy