The request by a U.S. Army captain to a federal court for a declaratory judgment about his constitutional duties regarding going to war is the latest reminder of the unsatisfactory situation in which the United States is engaged in military operations in multiple overseas locales without any authorization other than a couple of outdated and obsolete Congressional resolutions whose relevance is questionable at best.
Of the many ways in which the U.S. Congress has fallen down on the job, this is one of the more important ones. There are several reasons that Congress should take up without further delay the question of an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF). Getting out of the legal netherworld in which current U.S. military operations exist is one of those reasons.
Another reason is that Congress is, along with the Executive Branch, a co-equal policy-making arm of government. Important dimensions of war and peace should reflect the best judgment of the people’s representatives in Congress, rather than that branch being merely a kibitzer and critic of what the administration does.