Foreign Policy, Intelligence, and Political Courage

SJ Res 7 and Yemen

Federalist 70

Intelligence and Oversight: Hearings in the 1970s:

• House committee
• Senate committee
• Members do NOT need security clearances
• The community
• Intelligence budget
• Secret law:  the executive and Congress

Treaties and International Agreements

• Presidential power and Article II:" he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers."
• US v. Curtiss-Wright (1936): "It is important to bear in mind that we are here dealing not alone with an authority vested in the President by an exertion of legislative power, but with such an authority plus the very delicate, plenary and exclusive power of the President as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations -- a power which does not require as a basis for its exercise an act of Congress but which, of course, like every other governmental power, must be exercised in subordination to the applicable provisions of the Constitution."
• International Law and Agreements: Effect on US Law
• Article VI:  "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
• Treaties (US Senate)
• CRS on Reservations:   "After the Senate has begun considering this resolution, amendments proposing to change the text of the treaty itself are no longer in order. Senators may amend the resolution of ratification, however, by attaching to it reservations, declarations, statements, or understandings that can affect the interpretation or implementation of the treaty."
• Executive agreements
• The Iran deal was neither a treaty nor an executive agreement (and note the addressee)
• Congressional-executive agreements
• ARTICLE I: "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
• Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and TPP  and Fact-checking
• CONGRESS HAS DELEGATED A GREAT DEAL OF POWER TO POTUS

JFK on the complexity of courage:

• The pressure to "go along" -- but we "should not be too hasty in condemning all compromise as bad morals."
• The pressure to seek reelection -- but lawmakers "who go down to defeat in a vain defense of a single principle will not be on hand to fight for that or any other principle in the future."
• The pressure to serve interest groups -- but "they are the articulate few whose views cannot be ignored and who constitute the greater part of our contacts with the public at large, whose opinions we cannot know..."