06/24/2026
This symbolic resolution presents a great opportunity to remind readers that Trump never had constitutional authority to launch the war in the first place.
The support for the argument that Trump had no constitutional authority to launch the war is in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which makes clear that Congress is in charge of raising armies and deciding when war is necessary.
Also, Alexander Hamilton bolstered this interpretation in The Federalist, No. 69, where he said the U.S. president is not a king. Hamilton said, "The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. In this respect, his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces, as first general and admiral … while that of the British king extends to the declaring of war and to the raising and regulating of fleets and armies — all which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature."
And if there is any lingering doubt, here is what the Father of the Constitution, James Madison, had to say on the matter: "The Constitution supposes, what the History of all governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has, accordingly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature."
You can read the entire story: ttps://thenewamerican.com/us/politics/foreign-policy/symbolic-rebuke-senate-tells-trump-to-stand-down-on-iran/
