On January 10th, 2007, President Bush announced his intention to send an additional 21,500 troops into Iraq. It is now up to Congress to decide how it will respond. Our panel of constitutional scholars and former Presidential advisors discussed the scope of Congress' power to limit the President's actions in wartime. Among the questions considered: Which tools -- such as refusing to fund an escalation of the war, attaching conditions to appropriations, or enacting laws forbidding escalation of the war -- are constitutionally available to Congress? How has the Supreme Court defined the scope of Congress’ power to limit the Commander-in-Chief? What historical precedents exist?


For a partial transcript of the panel, please click here.

The panel featured:

• Neil J. Kinkopf, Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law; Former Special Assistant, Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel from 1993-1997
• David B. Rivkin, Jr., Baker Hostetler LLP; former Deputy Director of the Office of the Legal Policy in the U.S. Department of Justice and Associate Counsel to the President in the Reagan and the George W. Bush Administrations.
• Christopher H. Schroeder, Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies, Duke University School of Law; Former Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel; Former Chief Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee
• Moderator, Beth Nolan, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP; Former Counsel to the President from 1999-2001