WEBVTT - Bloomberg Law Brief: Presidential War Powers (Audio)

0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.200
<v Speaker 1>Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg lobbrare for

0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:05.200
<v Speaker 1>exploring legal issues in the news, and today Bloomberg lahst

0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:09.719
<v Speaker 1>Greg Stewart discuss his President Trump's constitutional powers and taking

0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.800
<v Speaker 1>military action against North Korea, and whether he would need

0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:17.160
<v Speaker 1>congressional approval for a large scale attack overseas. She speaks

0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.239
<v Speaker 1>with Elias Souman, a professor at the George Mason University

0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.279
<v Speaker 1>and an Inscalia law school. Let me just start with

0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:27.520
<v Speaker 1>the core constitutional question. Could Donald Trump legally order a

0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:32.400
<v Speaker 1>preemptive attack on North Korea without getting congressional authorization? I

0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:35.640
<v Speaker 1>think not? In west perhaps the North Korean attack was

0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:40.760
<v Speaker 1>imminent because the Constitution makes it clear that only Congress

0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:45.599
<v Speaker 1>has the power to authorize the initiation of a war. However,

0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:50.960
<v Speaker 1>it's possible that despite its unconstitutionality, Trump could potentially get

0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:55.800
<v Speaker 1>away with starting a war without congressional authorization because adhering

0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.840
<v Speaker 1>to that constitutional principle has been spotty in recent years

0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.880
<v Speaker 1>in footing under President Obama. Let's let's get into some

0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.360
<v Speaker 1>of that history in a moment. If it were a

0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.080
<v Speaker 1>smaller scale strike, is that something that that Trump could

0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:11.839
<v Speaker 1>could do without going to Congress first? I think there's

0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.480
<v Speaker 1>room for legitimate debate over that. Some people would argue,

0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:17.560
<v Speaker 1>and I tend to agree with this, that there might

0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.600
<v Speaker 1>be small scale military actions that fall short of a war,

0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.760
<v Speaker 1>and then perhaps the president could undertake them on their own,

0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.880
<v Speaker 1>maybe his strike on Syria a few months ago as

0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.959
<v Speaker 1>an example of this. Others, however, argued that any attack

0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.000
<v Speaker 1>kind of foreign power, even a very small one, qualifies

0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.920
<v Speaker 1>as an act of war, and if it's done to

0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.559
<v Speaker 1>start a conflict rather than in reaction to an enemy

0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.240
<v Speaker 1>attack or two like, then uh, it's a war and

0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:48.280
<v Speaker 1>Congress have to authorize it. One thing North Korea has

0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:51.120
<v Speaker 1>threatened is this idea of launching missiles that would land

0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:56.560
<v Speaker 1>near Guam. Would that be enough to allow the president

0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:01.080
<v Speaker 1>to respond without having to get something some thursdation from Congress.

0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.560
<v Speaker 1>It's an interesting case, as would almost steady legal principle,

0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.640
<v Speaker 1>They're going to be borderline situations which may be hard

0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.960
<v Speaker 1>to categorize. I would very tentatively say that if the

0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:15.640
<v Speaker 1>strike on Guam looked like it was likely intended to

0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.040
<v Speaker 1>actually hit Guam, then that's an act of war and

0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.799
<v Speaker 1>Trump currently could respond to any president could respond if,

0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:24.840
<v Speaker 1>on the other hand, it seems pretty clear that all

0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:29.200
<v Speaker 1>North Korea is doing is landing missiles in international waters.

0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.120
<v Speaker 1>That's provocative and I advised act, but in itself wouldn't

0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.000
<v Speaker 1>count as a war because all sorts of governments have

0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:40.120
<v Speaker 1>war games and military exercises and international waters all the time.

0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.560
<v Speaker 1>That's I yes, so Men, a professor at the George

0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.119
<v Speaker 1>Mason University ended in Scalia Law School, speaking with Bloomberg

0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:49.400
<v Speaker 1>Law hose Greg Store. You can listen to Bloomberg Law

0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.320
<v Speaker 1>weekdays at one pm all street time here on Bloomberg Radio,

0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:55.760
<v Speaker 1>and that's this morning is Bloomberg Law Brief. You can

0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:58.040
<v Speaker 1>find more legal news at Bloomberg Law dot com and

0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.120
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg b ana dot com. Attorneys will find exceptional legal

0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.400
<v Speaker 1>research and business development tools there as well. Visit Bloomberg

0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.000
<v Speaker 1>Law dot com and Bloomberg bna dot com for more

0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:07.519
<v Speaker 1>information