Member-only story
Commander-in-Chief — with one big asterisk
The U.S. President — as described by the White House and codified in the U.S. Constitution in Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 — is also the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces. There were a number of reasons the founders of the country wanted an elected civilian in this role and one of them was to lead the overall defense of the nation (Governors still have this role for their state or territorial national guards domestically — more on that in a moment). Externally, this has certainly caused political challenges which still vex the U.S. today: How “far” is the reach of presidential authority in sending military assets — including U.S. troops — into foreign countries, without a formal declaration of war issued by Congress? And what about domestically, within the United States?
From the Korean Conflict, to Viet Nam, to the Middle East, to Afghanistan (a couple of times), and now possibly Ukraine, the question of Executive Branch authority to command U.S. troops abroad versus authorization by Congress has been a sticky one. The last time the U.S. was in a formally declared war was more than 80 years ago (WW II). Since then, the President has certainly called up our troops — including federalizing “members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary” whenever:
(1) the United States, or any of the…
