Who's the Commander-in-Chief: Is Congress Going Too Far By Setting a Deadline for U.S. Troops To Leave Iraq?

Louisville Lawyers Chapter

Speaker:

• Andy McCarthy, Senior Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

Speaker:

• Andy McCarthy, Senior Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

Some members of Congress are attempting to use the "power of the purse" to place restrictions on the Bush Administration's conduct of the war in Iraq. Those restrictions include a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the imposition of benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet in military affairs. Critics of the proposed requirements argue that Congress is attempting to micromanage the war, thereby infringing on the President's authority as commander-in-chief in violation of the separation-of-powers principle. Proponents of the restrictions contend that Congress has every right to set conditions on the expenditure of any funds that it appropriates.

The next luncheon hosted by the Louisville Lawyer Chapter of the Federalist Society will feature a discussion of these issues. Andrew C. McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor and a contributor at National Review Online. From 1993 through 1996, while an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York he led the prosecution against the jihad organization of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, in which a dozen Islamic militants were convicted of conducting a war of urban terrorism against the United States that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. Mr. McCarthy also made major contributions to the prosecutions of the bombers of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the Millennium plot to attack Los Angeles International Airport.

Following the September 11 attacks, Mr. McCarthy supervised the U.S. Attorney's Anti-Terrorism Command Post in New York City, coordinating investigative and preventive efforts with numerous federal and state law enforcement and intelligence agencies. From 1999 through 2003, he was the Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District's satellite office, responsible for federal law enforcement in six counties north of New York City.

RSVP to John K. Bush at [email protected].

There is no cost for this luncheon.