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1 1 (July 22, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveqbc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The Army Clause, Part 1: Overview and Historical Background July 22, 2024 This Legal Sidebar is the first in a five-part series that discusses the U.S. Constitution's Army Clause, found in Article I, Section 8, clause 12, which authorizes the federal government to raise and support armies while also allowing for congressional control through the appropriations process. Because the Army Clause provides Congress with an essential element of the United States' suite of war powers, understanding the Army Clause may assist Congress in its legislative activities. This Sidebar post provides an overview of and historical background on the Army Clause. Other Sidebars in this series discuss the clause's drafting and ratification; relationship with appropriations, conscription, and war materials; role in individual rights cases; and connection with principles of federalism. Additional information on this and related topics is available at the Constitution Annotated. Overview The Army Clause provides that Congress shall have Power ... To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years. The clause's structure reflects the efforts by the Constitution's Framers to balance two competing concerns in the Founding era: a widespread mistrust of peacetime standing armies and the new nation's desire to ensure security through military protection. The Framers sought to address both issues by authorizing Congress to raise and maintain armies, while requiring renewal of appropriations for that purpose every two years to ensure democratically elected representatives continued to support the army. Although congressional power to raise and support armies has sometimes come into tension with other constitutional rights and principles, the Supreme Court has described this power as broad and sweeping, and has rejected some claimed limits on Congress's authority under the Army Clause. Historical Background The Constitution's Framers inherited a long-standing tradition of opposition to standing armies that was rooted in both political philosophy and historical experience. Many in the Framers' generation believed standing armies during peacetime were incompatible with republican values, and they viewed professional armies to be too far removed from the general populace to be trusted to defend it. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11204 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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