I have now had a chance to read through House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon's new detention and AUMF language, released yesterday as part of the Chairman's mark of the National Defense Authorizatio...

As we’ve noted on this blog previously (here and here), continued U.S.

The House Armed Services Committee just released the Chairman's mark of the National Defense Authorization bill. I have not looked at it yet, but it apparently contains new language on detention and AUMF...

In a recent post, Bobby raised the question of what impact, if any, Bin Laden’s death would have on the legal effect of the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or “AUMF.”  As I noted in a post earli...

I have recently blogged about two issues:  whether congressional authorization is required as a constitutional matter for U.S.

The press coverage today of the leaked files concerning the Guantanamo detainees provides a dramatic contrast with public discussions over the operations in Libya.  The focus on the detainees is agonizin...

In my discussion earlier this week of some of the problems with relying on historical practice to support a constitutional claim of presidential authority to initiate military operations without congress...

We at Duke University are initiating a year-long project  in which a number of us will be considering and discussing the relationship between law and custom.  In connection with that project, I have star...

Michael Glennon, a longtime critic of presidential war unilateralism, has written a sharp critique of the April 1 OLC Opinion in support of the Libya intervention.  The conclusion (footnotes omitted): OL...

The United States is still bombing, under NATO command.  And Congress, which has not authorized this action, is still dithering.  If this pattern continues for another month (or two), the administration ...

OLC’s Libya memorandum (see here for Jack’s assessment, and here for a point-by-point overview) concludes as a matter of constitutional law that President Obama did not need approval from Congress in ord...

Further to Jack's post summarizing the OLC opinion on Libya, here is a point-by-point summary of the document's legal analysis (I agree very much with Jack's take on the implications of all this): 1.