Defending Rights & Dissent Statement on Trump’s Unconstitutional Iran Strikes

The following statement can be attributed to Chip Gibbons, Policy Director, Defending Rights & Dissent, in response to this morning’s U.S. attacks on Iran:

Trump’s aggression this morning against Iran is unconstitutional, unlawful, and immoral. The Constitution is clear Congress has the exclusive right to take us to war. Bombing a country with the intent of removing its government is war. Iran has already retaliated and Trump has predicted both “major combat operations” and potential U.S. casualties. 

We are at war.

There was no emergency, this was a planned war of choice by Trump coordinated with Israel, a foreign government credibly accused of violating international conventions prohibiting apartheid and genocide. In addition to the Constitution granting Congress the exclusive power to initiate war, it also makes clear that any treaty adopted by the Senate has the full weight of federal law. The Senate ratified 85-2 the United Nations Charter, a document intended to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.”  The United Nations Charter explicitly forbids this type of aggression, placing Trump in clear violation of international law binding on our country. 

While this is Trump’s war of choice, it must be stressed that he was openly telegraphing his impending aggression for some time. This was visible to the American people, who overwhelmingly opposed Trump taking us to war. Yet, Congress has repeatedly delayed or failed to take action to uphold the Constitution and save our country from disaster. This failure to take action, following decades of refusing to hold presidents from both parties accountable for unconstitutional military action, paved the way for today’s catastrophe.  

Congress must immediately reconvene and invoke the War Powers Resolution. While that is an urgent first step, that is not sufficient. Trump must be impeached and removed from office, along with all members of his cabinet who played a role in this crime against our Constitution. 

Defending Rights & Dissent is a national civil liberties organization defending the people’s right to know and freedom to act through grassroots mobilization, public education, policy expertise, and advocacy journalism.