By What Authority Has Obama Gone to War with Libya? | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

By What Authority Has Obama Gone to War with Libya? | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "On the campaign trail in late 2007, [Obama] told reporter Charlie Savage that the president lacks the constitutional power 'to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.'

Then-candidate Hillary Clinton said much the same: 'The Constitution requires Congress to authorize war.'

It is 'a great principle in free government,' James Madison wrote in 1793, 'that those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges, [of] whether a war ought to be commenced.' The Constitution leaves that question to Congress."