War Powers Act

War Powers Act

On November 19, 1973, the Special Committee on the Termination of the National Emergency presented Senate Report 93-549 at the first session of the 93rd Congress. The Introduction to the report, an examination of existing War and Emergency Powers Acts, states:


 * "Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency. In fact, there are now in effect four presidentially-proclaimed states of national emergency: In addition to the national emergency declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, there are also the national emergency proclaimed by President Harry S. Truman on December 16, 1950, during the Korean conflict, and the states of national emergency declared by President Richard M. Nixon on March 23, 1970, and August 15, 1971."


 * "These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of Federal law. These hundreds of statutes delegate to the President extraordinary powers, ordinarily exercised by the Congress, which affect the lives of American citizens in a host of all-encompassing manners. This vast range of powers, taken together, confer enough authority to rule the country without reference to normal Constitutional processes."


 * "Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens."


 * "With the melting of the Cold war--the developing Detente with the Soviet Union and China, the stable truce of over 20 years duration between North and South Korea, and the end of U.S. involvement in the war in Indochina-there is no present need for the United States Government to continue to function under emergency conditions."

However, in relating an overview of the history of this emergency rule, the Committee admitted that


 * "A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have, in varying degrees, been abridged by laws brought into force by states of national emergency. The problem of how a constitutional democracy reacts to great crises, however, far antedates the Great Depression. As a philosophical issue, its origins reach back to the Greek city-states and the Roman Republic. And, in the United States, actions taken by the Government in times of great crises have-from, at least, the Civil War-in important ways, shaped the present phenomenon of a permanent state of national emergency."

President Woodrow Wilson, after the Allied victory of World War I, "relinquished his wartime authority and asked Congress to repeal the emergency statutes, enacted to fight more effectively the war. Only a food-control measure and the 1917 Trading With the Enemy Act were retained. This procedure of terminating emergency powers when the particular emergency itself has, in fact, ended has not been consistently followed by his successors."

In fact, the Report continues, the "Trading With the Enemy Act had, however, been specifically designed by its originators to meet only wartime exigencies. By employing it to meet the demands of the depression, Roosevelt greatly extended the concept of emergencies to which expansion of executive powers might be applied. And in so doing, he established a pattern that was followed frequently: In time of crisis the President should utilize any statutory authority readily at hand, regardless of its original purposes, with the firm expectation of ex post facto congressional concurrence ... Beginning with F.D.R., then, extensive use of delegated powers exercised under an aura of crisis has become a dominant aspect of the presidency. Concomitant with this development has been a demeaning of the significance of emergency."

The Report states, "Because Congress and the public are unaware of the extent of emergency powers, there has never been any notable congressional or public objection made to this state of affairs. Nor have the courts imposed significant limitations ... the temporary states of emergency declared in 1938, 1939, 1941, 1950, 1970, and 1971 would become what are now regarded collectively as virtually permanent states of emergency (the 1939 and 1941 emergencies were terminated in 1952). Forty years can, in no way, be defined as a temporary emergency."

Secondly, it adds, "the various administrations who drafted these laws for a variety of reasons were understandably not concerned about providing for congressional review, oversight, or termination of these delegated powers which gave the President enormous powers and flexibility to use those powers."

The Special Committee's opinion was that, "In the view of the Special Committee, an emergency does not now exist. Congress, therefore, should act in the near future to terminate officially the states of national emergency now in effect", although the Committee was also "of the view that it is essential to provide the means for the Executive to act effectively in an emergency. It is reasonable to have a body of laws in readiness to delegate to the President extraordinary powers to use in times of real national emergency."

According to Troubled Times, as the declared National Emergency of March 9, 1933 amended the War Powers Act to include the American People as enemies. This allowed Maritime Law to come onto land."

The writer says to "Be careful of that pretty little flag with the gold trim that sits on a pedestal in your courtrooms. That is an Admiralty flag (an ensign, a military flag) flown on the open seas, not the American flag ... The US Constitution allowed for three types of laws, Common Law ('We the People'), Contract Law governing contracts and agreements, and Maritime Law that is to be used on the open seas to govern our Naval forces while out there since the ships are not on our land. Only in times of war can Maritime Law govern on land. This is proclaimed by the president. This flag changes your status from Sovereign (God's Law) to subject (the Kings Law)."

The source, Troubled Times, also warns of the expected near passage of Planed X in 2003. "[A]s this magnetic giant passes by, it will force our North and South Poles to rotate 90 degrees. The shifting poles will drag the Earth's crust with them, ultimately producing a new global map in a matter of hours in a massive cataclysm affecting all life on earth. These events have occurred before, as ancient legends and Prophecies fortell, creating what man interprets to be ice ages, wandering poles and the flood, and have resulted in the extinction of the Mastodon and the sinking of Atlantis."

Therefore, a grain of salt is recommended in reading the warning about admiralty law.

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Homeland defense
 * Homeland security
 * National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
 * State of national emergency
 * Trading With the Enemy Act