War Powers Of The President
~And Truth About Commander In Chief Status ~

U.S. Constitution and Bill Of Rights – What you don’t know…will hurt you! VOL 1 ~ Dr. John Coleman 

“As for the war powers of the President, there are none. The powers of the President are limited and among them  are ribbon cutting and making radio and television speeches, and being a telephone jockey. 

The powers of the President are very skimpy. 

The oft-repeated falsehood that the President automatically becomes the commander in chief of the armed forces as soon as he is elected to office is a willful misrepresentation of what the Constitution actually says.

Also, he has no power to declare war as stated in the Congressional Record, House, Dec. 1945 which talks about the U.N.’s illegality:

“It (the U.N. treaty/agreement) provides that the power to declare war be taken away from the Congress and given to the President.”

 Henry Clay that great constitutional authority, stated that Congress declares war and makes policy and objectives for the war, not the President. 

The president is responsible for purely military duties AFTER being called into service by the Congress, and he has nothing to say about the declaration of war, or its purposes and intent.  That belongs exclusively to the House and Senate as Clay forcefully stated.

And the title of commander in chief is temporarily conferred upon him by Congress, lasting only until the  MILITARY objectives are reached or the war ends, at which time the title is taken back by the Congress and that is the end of it. 

The President doesn’t retain the title of commander in chief ad-infinitum. It is not a title that automatically comes with the job. The President is not a king. Congressional Record, Senate, July 21, 1922.  pages 2916-2920:

 “In their final and deliberate judgment one of the most important features of the covenant (the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights) was that our country should be distinguished from other nations in its refusal to concentrate in one man exclusive power over foreign relations of the Government and especially over the issues of peace and war…”

 In no way would the Founding Fathers have allowed the President to become a king and a tyrant by giving him war-making powers. That comes through loud and clear: Appendix to Blackstone’s Commentaries With Notes to the Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia, particularly page 329 (restrictions on the President.):

 “The first shall be commander in chief of the army, the navy to the United States and the militia of the several States (not to be confused with the un-enlisted militia or the National Guard) when called into service of the United States…As to the first, he cannot make rules for the regulation and government of the army and navy himself and must govern according to the regulations established by the Congress.”

 In other words, the President is not automatically the commander in chief. Until such times as the Congress confers the title upon him, and even when appointed to this position his powers are very much curtailed and he cannot choose where to send the army and navy, nor decide the purpose of their mission.  Until the Congress calls the President into service and confers upon him the title of commander in chief, he does not hold this position. 

Conferring the title of commander in chief is a future action, not a past action. It would be a past action if the President were automatically become the commander in chief when elected to office. Only the Congress can confer the title upon the President when it calls him into actual service, and this, only after a constitutional declaration of war.

 Today, the members of the House and Senate today, have little knowledge what these words “when called into actual service” mean. If it were true– as some assert– that the President is automatically commander in chief upon being elected– he would then “stand where kings stood” to paraphrase Pres. Lincoln.  Our Founding Fathers did not want the US to have a king, which is why they placed this restraint upon the powers of the President.

 Also, few of our current members of the House know how to draw up a constitutional declaration of war, which is a deliberately complicated procedure; a secretive procedure designed to curb hothead presidents from rushing the U.S. to war.  It also deals with the KIND of war it intends declaring–and not it is the Congress that makes the decision.  This information is spelled out in the Congressional Record, House, July 21, 1888, and explains the difference between limited wars and unlimited wars.  Pomeroy, the great constitutionalist of that period wrote in his work, “Introduction to Constitutional Law”;

 “The organic law nowhere proscribes or limits the causes for which hostilities may be waged against a foreign nation. The causes of war it leaves to the discretion and judgment of the legislature.”

 As an example of a proper declaration of war, consult the House of Representatives Report No. 1, 65th Congress, 1st session, page 319, Congressional Record, House, April 5, 1917.

 We issue a challenge to the Supreme Court, the American Bar Association (ABA), indeed any person in the law profession, any member of the legislature, any member of the executive branch, to show us where in the delegated powers of the central government is it stated that the President has any war power; or where it says that the President can wage war without a constitutional declaration of war. 

Presidential Executive Orders do not trump States Rights nor the 10th Amendment of the  Constitution of the United States.

Presidential Executive Orders can only be directed to the employees of the Central / Federal Government. The President is not the State Executor of any State.

 Article II, Sec. 3.Pt II, says that the President shall only have military duties when called into service and he has NO role in the planning or choosing of the type of war to be fought.  Furthermore the President has NO role in planning the war and the purposes for which the troops are to be used.

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 There Are Many Myths Of Presidential Powers

The myth or misconception that the President is the highest office of the United States of America or the world is exactly that, it’s a myth. The President is not over the Governors, foreign Kings, Queens, nor civilian population here or abroad.

“With increasing use being made of unconstituMOJO Marketplacetional “executive orders”, we now have the unconstitutional situation where the President makes laws, and the Congress rubber-stamps them.”
— Dr. John Coleman; The Committee of 300

 “We can safely discount so-called “Executive Orders” as these are proclamations forbidden by the Constitution. Only kings of England have the power to issue proclamations; the President of the United States, not being a king has no such power.”
— Dr. John Coleman; What You Should Know About the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights

 “If the American people are satisfied with a king in the White House, let them send the Senators and Representatives home and save the people vast amounts of money by not having to pay their salaries.”
— Dr. John Coleman; What You Should Know About the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights

‘When Lincoln issued his Executive Order # 1 declaring Martial law, he committed treason under the 1861 Treason Act.”
— Dr. John Coleman; What You Should Know About the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights 

“So-called Executive Orders are null and void and of no force in law, being proclamations, which are forbidden by the Constitution. Only the monarchs of England can issue proclamations. An Executive Order, no matter how it is drawn up or who signs it, is a proclamation, and is therefore of no effect, and the citizens of the several States are not duty-bound to obey one jot of such an order. President Lincoln was the first to violate the Constitution in this manner. […] Before his death, Lincoln admitted that his power grab was unconstitutional.”
— Dr. John Coleman; What You Should Know About the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights

 “Another myth widely circulated is that the person elected to be the president automatically assumes the position and power as Commander In Chief. Only a very few members of the House and Senate have an understanding of what the war powers of the president are.

They have no clear idea what the words “when actually called into service by the Congress” mean: The president

does not assume the title of commander in chief of the armed forces simply by being elected to the office.

If this were so, then the president would have the power of a king, but the words of condition in Article 11, Section 2, Part 1 of  the U.S. Constitution “when actually called into service” are there to restrain him from acting like a king.

 I must repeat: Until the Congress confers the title of commander in chief upon him, the President is not the commander in chief. Conferring the title implies a future action, not a past action, which it would be if he, the President, automatically became the commander in chief upon being elected.

Only Congress can confer the title, “commander in chief” upon the president and this can only be conferred after a constitutional declaration of war has been made by Congress.

 Show me one place in the delegated powers of the executive where it says that the President has war powers. There is nothing in the delegated powers of  Congress (Art 1, Section 8, Clauses1-18 that allows for such a false and fraudulent position to be taken by the President.

Article 11, Section 2, part 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that the only duties the President has are military duties, when called into actual service; he has no role in planning or choosing reasons for taking America to war.

Only the House and Senate can plan a war or order military action in support of it, to be taken. If and when this is done by the House and Senate, then the House and Senate tell the President what he can and cannot do with our military forces; where they can be sent and for what purposes. Before that action by the joint session of Congress, he, the President, has zero power to take action on sending troops anywhere.”

— Dr. John Coleman; What You Should Know About the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights