Politics

Rand Paul's Syria Amendment Declares POTUS In Violation of the Constitution if He Launches Attacks Without Congressional Permission

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credit: Gage Skidmore / Foter / CC BY-SA

Senator Rand Paul's amendment to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee resolution throws President Obama's own words back at him.

The amendment quotes from a response Obama gave the Boston Globe back in 2007 as a Senator, in which Obama said that "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."

Paul's amendment then provides constitutional backing for Obama's statement—and finally declares that "it is the sense of Congress that if this authorization fails to pass Congress, the President would be in violation of the Constitution if he were to use military force against the Government of Syria."

Read the entire text of the amendment below. 

Paul Syria Amendment