Volume 74 Issue 1 Issues 1 & 2 Article 9 August 1971 War Powers Legislation J. Terry Emerson Legislative Counsel to U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr Part of the Legislation Commons, Military, War, and Peace Commons, and the President/Executive Department Commons Recommended Citation J. T. Emerson, War Powers Legislation, 74 W. Va. L. Rev. (1971). Available at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr/vol74/iss1/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the WVU College of Law at The Research Repository @ WVU. It has been accepted for inclusion in West Virginia Law Review by an authorized editor of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Emerson: War Powers Legislation War Powers Legislation J. TERRY EMERSON* I. INTRODUCTION The Ninety-Second Congress has been marked by the unusual drama of a vigorous and persistent effort by the Legislative Branch to confront the President, eyeball to eyeball, over the primary issues of war and peace. Nowhere has the contest been joined in a more fundamental way, reaching to the very core of the division of powers between the two political branches, than in the bold thrust by several senators to codify the rules governing the circumstances in which the United States may go to and remain in war.' No less than 19 senators have introduced or cosponsored one of five different bills or joint resolutions seeking to define the instances when the President may use or deploy the Armed Forces of the United States.' Taken singly or severally, these measures purport to demark the sole conditions under which the President can initiate military hostilities and to restrict his authority to continue any such hostility beyond a brief period unless and until he has obtained a new and specific authorization from Congress.4 * A.B.