They're not doing any of that under any law I've ever heard of. That's why all of it's causing scandal after scandal. If martial law had been declared, that would be the ONLY scandal and everything else would be exercises of power under that declaration with no further justification necessary. Oh, and it'd probably cause an insurrection.
As an aside, the commander-in-chief has ALWAYS been capable of authorizing bombing raids against other countries without Congress' approval. They're called "police actions" and can't last over 30 days without going to Congress. The problem here is that Congress is a bunch of spineless losers who rubber-stamp every military bill that comes before them rather than look like they're "against the troops". Their power of the purse was SPECIFICALLY put into the Constitution so that they could rein in an otherwise warmongering president, but they've become too scared to use that power and give it to the president by default because of their cowardice.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-12 01:31 am (UTC)As an aside, the commander-in-chief has ALWAYS been capable of authorizing bombing raids against other countries without Congress' approval. They're called "police actions" and can't last over 30 days without going to Congress. The problem here is that Congress is a bunch of spineless losers who rubber-stamp every military bill that comes before them rather than look like they're "against the troops". Their power of the purse was SPECIFICALLY put into the Constitution so that they could rein in an otherwise warmongering president, but they've become too scared to use that power and give it to the president by default because of their cowardice.