ressional legislation, as well as secondary commentaries, this report will move from an overview of constitutional enumeration of executive, legislative, and judiciary roles with respect to war powers to an exploration of each of these systems in different eras of United States history. The report will then explore the legislative reassertion of its constitutional war powers role and discuss the doctrinal development of the powers of the executive in times of war.
Constitutional Enumeration of Powers and Roles
Michael D. Ramsey (2002, 1543) states that when the U.S. Constitution was written, a "declaration" of war was understood to mean the initiating of military action as well as a formal declaration of war. When they met in Philadelphia in 1787, the Founders were in complete agreement that the power to declare war was to be exercised by the Congress and not the president (Collier and Collier 1986, 331). The Virginia Plan, which had been proposed at the Constitutional Convention, said nothing about who could declare war. Neither did the Patterson Plan, and the matter was first brought up by the Committee of Detail which specifically gave Congress the power to "make" war while identifying the executive as "commander-in-chief of the Army, and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states" (Collier and Collier 1986, 330).
The debate on war making power had been discussed in The Federalist Papers, with Alexander Hamilton calling for the federal government to be entrusted with the care of the common defense (Rossiter 1961, 153). James Madison also held that it was necessary for the government to possess such power, but believed that it was the Congress and not the president who should have the ultimate authority for declaring war (Rossiter 1961, 262).
In the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8 definitively states that it is the Congress that has the power "to declare war," "to ...