Defense of the War Powers Resolution: Chadha Does Not Apply, In
![handle is hein.journals/hulr22 and id is 1201 raw text is: IN DEFENSE OF THE WAR POWERS
RESOLUTION: CHADHA DOES NOT APPLY
G. Sidney Buchanan*
I. INTRODUCTION
In 1973, the United States Congress enacted into law a joint
resolution entitled the War Powers Resolution.' Adopted over a
presidential veto on November 7, 1973,2 the resolution has been
described as an unusual, quasi-constitutional variety of congres-
sional action, delineating not substantive policy but processes and
relationships.3 One of the processes delineated by the War
Powers Resolution arguably takes the form of a legislative veto,4
a device held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the
recent case of Immigration and Naturalization Service v.
Chadha.5 This article examines the impact of the Chadha holding
on the War Powers Resolution and concludes that the resolution,
even in the light of Chadha, does not employ an unconstitutional
legislative veto.
* Copyright 1985 by Sidney Buchanan. All rights reserved. Professor of Law, Univer-
sity of Houston; A.B. 1956, Princeton University; J.D. 1959, University of Michigan
1. Pub. L. No. 93-148, 87 Stat. 555 (1973) [hereinafter cited as the War Powers Reso-
lution]. Throughout this article, I will cite the various sections of the War Powers Resolu-
tion as they appeared in the resolution's originally adopted form, as, for example, War
Powers Resolution, § 1. In its annotated form, the War Powers Resolution now appears in
50 U.S.C.A. §§ 1541-1548 (1985 Supp.).
2. War Powers Resolution, § 10. Section 10 provided that: This joint resolution shall
take effect on the date of its enactment. See also the Effective Date annotation under 50
U.S.C.A. § 1541 (1985 Supp.).
3. G. GUNTHER, CASES AND MATERIALS ON CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 371 n.4 (11th ed. 1985).
4. For purposes of this article, a legislative veto constitutes a provision by which
Congress reserves to itself a power to affect, by later action less than a law, authority that it
has previously delegated to some other agency or branch of government, typically to the
executive branch or to an administrative agency exercising quasi-legislative, rule-making au-
thority. This reservation of power by Congress occurs in legislative action that does meet
the procedural requirements for a law under U.S. CONST. art I, § 7. It is § 5 of the War
Powers Resolution that raises the legislative veto issue.
5. 462 U.S. 919 (1983). See generally Lungren & Krotoski, The War Powers Resolu-
tion After the Chadha Decision, 17 Loy. LAL. REv. 767 (1984).
1155](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hulr22&div=32&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Defense of the War Powers Resolution: Chadha Does Not Apply, In
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most