With a barrage of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting a Syrian air base, President Donald Trump has now joined the long list of modern presidents willing to commit acts of war without consulting Congress. Like many of his recent predecessors, President Trump cited authority granted him by the War Powers Resolution of 1973 (also known as the War Powers Act), which allows the president to send U.S. military forces into combat, provided he notifies Congress within 48 hours of the action and withdraws troops from combat after 60 days unless Congress approves an extension. This act was allegedly intended to curtail the president’s power to commit the U.S. military to war without congressional authorization following unrestrained presidential military action in Korea and Vietnam without congressional authorization.

But since the passage of the War Powers Act, U.S. presidents have been more, not less, inclined to commit the nation to war without congressional approval. Such has been the case in the various Balkan conflicts in the 1990s, numerous military actions in the Middle East since the Persian Gulf War, two invasions of Haiti, the 1980s attacks on Libya and invasions of Grenada and Panama, and countless other smaller incidents. For larger wars, such as the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War, presidents have taken to citing international authority such as UN Security Council resolutions as their ultimate justification for waging war; in this, they essentially adopted the reasoning of President Harry Truman, the first U.S. president to send U.S. forces into war without a congressional declaration, who cited UN authority in committing the United States to a “police action” on the Korean Peninsula.

But what are the constitutional limits on the president’s war powers? And how do they square with the actions of recent presidents, including President Trump?

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