An Iranian American organization filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday arguing that the Trump administration usurped Congress’s power to declare war through its roughly seven months of military operations in Iran.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, came two days after President Trump escalated threats against Iran in front of the United Nations, saying that he was considering whether to “annihilate” the country or strike a deal. The advocacy arm of the National Iranian American Council, which brought the lawsuit, argued the war had harmed many of its members, who have relatives in Iran who have been killed, injured or had their livelihoods destroyed because of the Trump administration’s bombing and economic pressure.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the war with Iran unconstitutional. The group wrote that the founders intended to leave “the question of war or peace” to Congress and not the president.
“That was the understanding of every participant in drafting, debating and ratifying the Constitution, and it remains the correct understanding today,” they wrote.
Congress enacted legislation in 1973 requiring the president to observe certain limits when ordering military operations, but courts have tended to defer to the president’s authority to conduct war as commander in chief of the armed forces.
In 1974, the Supreme Court declined to overturn a lower court’s decision allowing President Richard M. Nixon to carry out bombing campaigns in Cambodia during the Vietnam War without authorization from Congress. The lower court found then that the legality of the bombings was a political question not reviewable by the courts.
The lawsuit on Thursday followed several bipartisan efforts by lawmakers this year to pass a measure to pressure the president into ending the war or seeking congressional approval. But the measures, called war powers resolutions, do not carry the force of law and were repeatedly brushed aside by the White House.
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