"OK to Use Force for 60 Days
There have been numerous attacks -- including the Korean War, the Kosovo intervention in 1999 and the use of force in Haiti -- that were launched without congressional authorization. Each conflict sparked a debate about the scope of the executive's power.
Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith weighed in this week, saying he believes the Libyan action is constitutional.
Goldsmith, who worked in the Bush administration, noted that a combination of "indeterminate constitutional language" and the courts' having never resolved the question about the scope of the president's power to use force without authorization gives the executive "very broad discretion."
During the Vietnam conflict in 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution in part to make clear that there should be more limits on the president's power to use military force. The act allows the president to use military force without congressional authorization for 60 days unless Congress permits otherwise."