Is President Obama Launching an Illegal War?

The Constitutionality of Obama's Fight Against ISIS in Syria

As America’s intervention against ISIS in Iraq and Syria intensifies, its present course lacks popular support or constitutional legitimacy. 

Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
November 2, 2015

Without con­gres­sion­al per­mis­sion, pub­lic de­bate, or any at­tempt to rally the Amer­ic­an pub­lic’s sup­port, Pres­id­ent Obama has ordered U.S. ground troops to a war zone, his most flag­rantly un­con­sti­tu­tion­al war-mak­ing since he un­law­fully helped to over­throw Muam­mar al-Qad­dafi. “The United States is set to de­ploy troops on the ground in Syr­ia for the first time to ad­vise and as­sist rebel forces com­bat­ing IS­IS,” CNN re­ports. “The de­ploy­ment of U.S. Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions forces is the most sig­ni­fic­ant es­cal­a­tion of the Amer­ic­an mil­it­ary cam­paign against IS­IS to date.”

This should per­turb even pro­ponents of a U.S. war against IS­IS.

As Obama put it pri­or to the 2008 elec­tion: “The pres­id­ent does not have the 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.”

(More here.)