War Making: Executive and Legislative Powers Grade Level High School Discipline US Government American History National Standards for Civics and Government: The Center for Civic Education developed these standards to align with the National Education Goals stated in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994 with support from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Standard III - How does the Government Established by the Constitution Embody the Purposes, Values, and Principles of American Democracy? Section A - How are power and responsibility distributed, shared, and limited in the government established by the United States Constitution? Content Standard 1 - Distributing governmental power and preventing its abuse. Section B - How is the national government organized and what does it do? Content Standard 1 - The institutions of the national government. Content Standard 2 - Major responsibilities of the national government in domestic and foreign policy. Recommended Time Two 90-minute class sessions or three 60-minute class sessions. Lesson Overview The recent war in Iraq has precipitated a nationwide debate on a longstanding Constitutional and political question: What are the respective roles and responsibilities of the executive and legislative branches in making war? In the course of this lesson, students will examine the constitutional, legal, political and historical sources of this debate and apply them to the current conflict in Iraq and to other situations both past and present. Objectives Students will: • Examine what the Constitution says about the war-making power. • Contrast the roles and responsibilities of the executive and legislative branches of government when it comes to making war. • Become familiar with important 20th and 21st century Congressional resolutions and acts, including the 1941 Declaration of War on Japan; the Tonkin Gulf Resolution of 1964; the 1973 War Powers Act; and the 2002 Iraq War Resolution. • Analyze and evaluate contrasting opinions concerning the respective roles that should be played by the executive and legislative branches when it comes to making war. Materials • Handout 1: U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8 and Article II, Section 2) • Handout 2: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Message to Congress, December 8, 1941 • Handout 3: War Resolution, December 11, 1941 • Handout 4: President Lyndon B. Johnson's Message to the American People, August 4, 1964 • Handout 5: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, August 10, 1964 • Handout 6: War Powers Act, 1973 • Handout 7: President George W. Bush’s Letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, September 4, 2002 • Handout 8: Iraq War Resolution, October 10, 2002 Procedures Day One – 90 minutes • Students will locate the relevant sections of the Constitution in Handout 1 related to war-making powers. They will individually compare the powers of each branch and then share their findings with a partner. The partners will summarize the war making powers of each branch. • The partners will describe the procedure and sequence of events followed in 1941 for declaring war as described in Handout 2: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Message to Congress; and Handout 3: War Resolution. They will then compare/contrast that procedures in Handout 4: President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Message to the American People with the one described in Handout 5: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Students will make inferences regarding the relationship between the President and Congress in making war. • Students will engage in a discussion centered on the following questions: 1. How were the actions taken by President Roosevelt similar to and different from those taken by President Johnson? 2. How were the actions taken by Congress in 1941 similar to and different from the actions taken by Congress in 1964? 3. In what ways was the bombing of Pearl Harbor similar to and different from the events in the Gulf of Tonkin? 4. Was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution an implied declaration of war, or was it something different? 5. What Constitutional issues arise as a result of the events of 1964? 6. What might have happened if the Congress had not passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution? 7. How have the nature of war and the role of the United States in the world changed since World War Two? Day Two – 90 minutes • By 1973, increasing numbers of Americans and their elected representatives had turned against the war in Vietnam and came to believe that the president should be limited in his ability to wage war without the expressed approval of Congress. • Students will brainstorm a list of possible limitations on the president’s role as Commander-in-Chief that are consistent with the Constitution. • Students will use Handout 6: War Powers Act to compare/contrast their list with the provisions of the War Powers Act of 1973 and discuss the following questions: 1. Is the War Powers Act consistent with the Constitution? 2. Why do you think President Nixon vetoed the act? (Congress subsequently overturned his veto.) • Students will read Handout 7: President Bush’s Letter to House Speaker Hastert about his plans regarding possible war with Iraq and Handout 8: Iraq War Resolution that was passed the following month. They will discuss the following questions: 1. Is the Iraq War Resolution consistent with the Constitution? 2. Is the Iraq War Resolution consistent with the War Powers Act? 3. What might have happened if the Congress had not passed the Iraq War Resolution? 4. What recourse is left to Congress should it decide that the war in Iraq should be brought to an end? 5. What Constitutional and political challenges would Congress face should it decide to make use of its “power of the purse?” 6. How have the nature of war and the role of the United States in the world changed since Vietnam? • Students will stage a roundtable discussion on how the roles and responsibilities of the executive and legislative braches in the making of war have changed from 1941 to the present. The discussion should focus on the following set of questions: 1. Is the war-making power balanced between the executive and legislative branches of government? 2. If not, which branch possesses the greater power? 3. Should it be more balanced? Teachers may assign research regarding other conflicts in which the United States has been involved during these years, including the Korean War, the incursion into Cambodia, the invasion of Granada, the bombing of Kosovo, and the first Gulf War. Evaluation Defend or reject the following statement: The United States needs to develop a new and better-balanced way of deciding whether to make war? Handout 1: Constitution of the United States of America Article I Section 8 The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings;-And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. Article I Section 2 The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.