Abstract
President Donald Trump has launched another unlawful war, this time in the service of regime change in Iran. The administration has been threatening the use of force for weeks, but provided very little public justification, description of what the president hoped to accomplish, or explanation for how the use of force would effectuate such goals. It has also to date presented no legal justification whatsoever. Much of what we know at this moment about how the administration views, and how it lawyers, questions of war powers can be derived from the one legal memorandum the administration has released on the use of force in a very different context, in which it sought to justify the recent use of force against Venezuela and its head of state.
Document Type
Op-ed
Publication Date
3-2-2026
Source Publication
Just Security
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Law | Military, War, and Peace | National Security Law | President/Executive Department
Recommended Citation
Ingber, Rebecca, "The Trump Administration’s Theory of Constitutional War Powers: “The President Could Decide”" (2026). Online Publications. 154.
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/faculty-online-pubs/154
Included in
Constitutional Law Commons, Military, War, and Peace Commons, National Security Law Commons, President/Executive Department Commons
