Post
by Coito ergo sum » Wed Mar 14, 2012 1:08 pm
Regarding Panama, I believe there was bipartisan support for the action, and the there was a Congressional oversight committee approving various aspects of US action along the way, including covert CIA action, which was all approved and funded by Congress - and I do believe he complied with the War Powers Act.
With respect to Grenada, Reagan notified House Speaker Tip O'Neill (D) of the majority Democrat Congress, and he notified Congress in conformity with the War Powers Act. It fell upon Congress under the War Powers Act to invoke section 4(a)(1) which would have imposed the 60 or 90 day limit on the mission, but they never completed that process and section 4(a)(1) was never actually imposed. Tip O'Neill said that the War Powers Resolution had become operative on October 25. By December 15, 1983, all U.S. combat troops had been removed from Grenada - thus, War Powers Act compliance appears to be at least arguably there. But, I do not believe that Reagan sought specific Congressional approval -- I believe he relied upon the request from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States which claimed that Cuban forces were on the island, and that people, including Americans, were at serious risk. There were Cuban forces there, and the US troops were very much welcomed - Americans were spirited off of the island. And, it is without doubt that the alleged Cuban construction workers, were military personnel.
Eleven Democrat Members of Congress filed a suit challenging the constitutionality of President Reagan's invasion of Grenada. A district judge held that courts should not decide such cases unless the entire Congress used the institutional remedies available to it. An appellate court subsequently held that the issue was moot because the invasion had been ended.
But, one of the points of raising the question in the OP is this: "The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation," - Barack H. Obama. Seems incongruous...
