Don't Look Now, but the War Powers Resolution is Working

When I researched my book on war powers (Long Wars and the Constitution), I noticed a shift in opinion had occurred with respect to the WPR by the end of the Clinton administration. Before then, it was commonly claimed that the WPR was washed up, even legally defunct. During the 1988 episode in which the U.S. took military action and reflagged oil tankers toward the end of the Iran-Iraq war, senators seemed to despair about whether the WPR even applied. But by Clinton’s 1999 intervention in Kosovo, members of Congress were actively using the WPR as a reference point in evaluating the administration’s actions, criticizing Clinton for going beyond the 60-day limit. Perhaps it took a Democratic presidency for both parties to care about the WPR. Be that as it may, it is striking that that the WPR’s doubting critics have never come up with criteria to support a judgment that it is legally irrelevant. But since so many still seem skeptical, let’s turn that inquiry around – how would we know…