BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY, on Obama’s overruling of lawyers from Justice and Defense about the War Powers Act:
I couldn’t muster much outrage about this one.
On a question of foreign affairs law, the Attorney General’s lawyer disagreed with the Secretary of State’s lawyer. The President then listened to his own lawyer and resolved the matter in favor of State. That’s what chief executives do when their subordinates disagree.
The President gets to make these calls. Of course, when the President makes this sort of a call, in a war that never had any sort of Congressional approval, it’s pretty risky — or, if you prefer, “gutsy” — but that choice is the President’s to make, and the political risks are his to run.