NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
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Second, I think it preferable that the word "justified" be used in place of the word "authorized" in both paragraphs 3 and 4 of the draft Joint Resolution. The Joint Resolution of Congress approving President Wilson's action at the time of the Tampico incident designedly employed the word "justified" in order to avoid the implication that Congress was exercising the power which it alone has to declare war.[1] Moreover, I have taken the position internally within the Department of Defense that, as a matter of constitutional law, the President has authority to use the armed forces to repel aggression abroad without specific approval from the Congress where the circumstances of the situation require it. If this draft Joint Resolution is passed in its present form it will be a precedent for the proposition that the President must under the Constitution have an authorization from the Congress before he can use the armed forces to repel aggression abroad in cases of this sort in the future where the time element may b e even more critical than in the present case.
I think the first of these two points is worth mentioning. I think the second is worth pressing for.
(Signed)
Wilber M. Brucker
General Counsel
- ↑ See 6 Hackworth, Digest of International Law 1940 (1952).
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