An article from the symposium issue of the Indiana Law Journal on "War, Terrorism and Torture: Limits on Presidential Power in the 21st Century." The symposium was convened by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and the Indiana University School of Law–Bloomington on October 7, 2005.

“[This article poses the question:] does the President possess the constitutional authority to send American troops into war without authorization from Congress? Longtime Congressional Research Service lawyer and leading scholar Louis Fisher makes a strong case for a return to what he views as the correct balance of war-making powers. Recalling that the constitutional text expressly confers on Congress—not the President—the decision to go to war with another country, he recounts presidential actions to the contrary (beginning with President Harry Truman’s introduction of military forces in South Korea) and notes that Presidents of both political parties have transgressed constitutional constraints. Fisher’s comprehensive and enormously useful article also reviews responses from the judiciary, the media, and legal academics on this issue of war-making authority. Fisher particularly confronts the work of John Yoo, a controversial legal scholar who also served in the Department of Justice under President George W. Bush and who is widely credited with being a principal author and architect of some of the Bush administration’s most controversial legal positions.” From Foreword by Prof. Dawn Johnsen