President Barack Obama is being sued by ten United States lawmakers (including Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Presidential candidate of Texas, Ron Paul) for taking military action against Libya without Congress giving its war authorization – which is a violation of the Constitution.
CBS News publishes the list of ten lawmakers who filed he lawsuit today, Wednesday, against President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates:
“The plaintiffs are Democratic Reps. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, John Conyers of Michigan and Michael Capuano of Massachusetts and Republican Reps. Walter Jones and Howard Coble of North Carolina, Tim Johnson and Dan Burton of Indiana, Jimmy Duncan of Tennessee, Roscoe Bartlett of and Ron Paul of Texas.
Rep. John Boehner, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives urged Mr. Obama on Tuesday to explain the legal grounds for the continued U.S. military involvement and set a Friday deadline for the commander in chief’s response.
Ratcheting up the pressure, the Ohio Republican said in a letter to the White House that the administration clearly will be in violation of the 1973 War Powers Act this weekend. Mr. Obama did not seek congressional consent for the operation within 60 days of the March 19 U.S. airstrikes against Muammar Qaddafi’s forces.”
….This month, the House voted to rebuke Mr. Obama for failing to pursue congressional approval and accused the president of not providing a “compelling rationale” for the Libyan operation. The House measure also required a report from the administration, due by Friday, on the scope of the Libyan operation, its costs and its impact on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
It is worth noting that it is a bipartisan decision, and it is not just the Republicans who are after Obama. The choice Obama made was one that turned a lot of his supporters against him – people who stuck by him were suddenly torn due to the unconstitutional decision.
The Associated Press reports that the White House will send Congress the answers to questions in regards to this situation:
“President Barack Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney says the report is more than 30 pages and includes a legal analysis showing that the Libya campaign has been consistent with the War Powers Resolution.
The report will also include responses to questions posed by lawmakers in a House resolution passed earlier this month that chastised the president for not providing a “compelling rationale” for the Libya campaign. The resolution asked the administration for details on the scope of the mission, as well as the cost.
Carney says the White House believes congressional support for the Libya campaign will continue.”
UPI.com includes an interview with Kucinich:
“We have asked the courts to move to protect the American people from the results of these illegal policies,” Kucinich said, adding the suit will contest the Obama administration’s “circumvention of Congress and its use of international organizations such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to authorize the use of military force abroad.”
Bipartisanship has finally shown itself…in a very good way.
This will definitely bring much to light and there will be more reported and information provided when more information is obtained. Stay tuned, this is going to be very interesting!
–Nikky Raney
This will be covered on The Future of Journalism later on.
Zennie Abraham 
Bill Carroll