The Law: The President's War Powers

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Ultimately, the Cambodian version of this issue is less likely to reach the Supreme Court than to be settled politically between Congress and the President. Meantime, ironies abound. Liberals who long dismissed Congress as retrograde and favored "power to the President," as Columbia Law Professor Tom Farer puts it, are now defending congressional wisdom. Longtime advocates of pragmatic interpretation of the Constitution are now becoming staunch strict constructionists.

More important, the President's critics argue that a democracy's war actions must not only be legal but also widely supported. Few deny that the President must be free to respond to surprise attacks or support engaged troops. But when there is time for congressional debate, the critics contend the military and diplomatic inconveniences of delay are small enough prices to pay for ensuring that the U.S. will not be drawn into risky involvements until the nation has had a chance to grasp what is at stake.