The White House has threatened to veto the bipartisan resolution Congress just passed to limit President Donald Trump’s ability to pursue offensive military action against Iran — but invigorated anti-war advocates are already planning their next move.
Some Democratic lawmakers — and multiple anti-war groups who have their ear — are growing increasingly bullish on the prospect of taking Trump to court over unauthorized military action against Iran.
They say they believe that the Republican-held Senate’s 55-45 vote to rebuke Trump over Iran war powers coupled with today’s 227-186 House vote has given Congress the ammunition it needs to pursue a precedent-setting case in the US court system that they hope will allow lawmakers to wrest their war-making authorities back from the White House.
“I definitely think that we need to look into that,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who revived congressional interest in war powers resolutions when he first began pushing legislation to force Trump to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in 2017. “It’s got to be a conversation by many people in the caucus, but I’d certainly be supportive of it.”
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