In his latest “Monkey Cage” article for the Washington Post, Bowdoin government professor Andrew Rudalevige wonders why neither the U.S. House or Senate has challenged the president’s use of air power and Special Operations advisers against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
“Neither chamber has shown much interest in exercising one of Article I’s most basic powers, that of war and peace,” Rudalevige writes.
Last week, Army Captain Nathan Smith filed a lawsuit in a US District Court, challenging President Obama’s war against ISIS and calling it illegal because Congress has not authorized it. Rudalevige predicts the House will not join this suit. “Their inaction accretes into acquiescence — and sets new precedents not just for this administration but also for those to come,” he writes.”
