The Persian Gulf conflict moved to federal court Tuesday as a group of legislators urged a judge to block President Bush from going to war against Iraq without prior congressional approval.
University of Pittsburgh professor Jules Lobel, who represents 54 Democratic members of Congress suing the administration, argued that Bush and his aides have given every indication that they do not plan to get congressional permission before attacking Iraq if it does not withdraw from Kuwait by Jan. 15.
That, he said, would violate the Constitution, which specifically gives Congress the power to declare war.
”If Congress is silent, the Constitution tells us we cannot go to war,” Lobel told the presiding judge, Harold Greene.
”I think the president is simply thumbing his nose at Congress, and the court must say he cannot continue to do so.”
However, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Stuart Gerson, who has asked Greene to dismiss the suit, argued that neither the Constitution nor the 1973 War Powers Resolution requires a declaration of war before U.S. troops are engaged in battle.
The resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours after sending troops into a situation where hostilities are ”imminent” and to remove them within 90 days unless Congress approves the action.
After more than an hour of spirited debate, Greene said both lawyers had made persuasive arguments, but he gave no indication about when he would rule. Among the 54 Democratic members of Congress named as plaintiffs in the suit were Reps. Cardiss Collins, Richard Durbin, Lane Evans, Charles Hayes, Gus Savage and Sidney Yates of Illinois; David Bonior, George Crockett and Bob Traxler of Michigan and Jim Moody and Robert Kastenmeier of Wisconsin.
