Mora v. Namara, 401
| Decision Date | 06 November 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 401,401 |
| Parties | Dennis MORA et al., petitioners, v. Robert S. McNAMARA, Secretary of Defense, et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
See 389 U.S. 1025, 88 S.Ct. 584.
Stanley Faulkner and Selma W. Samols, for petitioners.
Solicitor General Marshall, for respondents.
Petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Denied.
The petitioners were drafted into the United States Army in late 1965, and six months later were ordered to a West Coast replacement station for shipment to Vietnam. They brought this suit to prevent the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Army from carrying out those orders, and requested a declaratory judgment that the present United States military activity in Vietnam is 'illegal.' The District Court dismissed the suit, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
There exist in this case questions of great magnitude. Some are akin to those referred to by Mr. Justice Douglas in Mitchell v. United States, 386 U.S. 972, 87 S.Ct. 1162, 18 L.Ed.2d 132. But there are others:
I. Is the present United States military activity in Vietnam a 'war' within the meaning of Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution?
II. If so, may the Executive constitutionally order the petitioners to participate in that military activity, when no war has been declared by the Congress?
III. Of what relevance to Question II are the present treaty obligations of the United States?
IV. Of what relevance to Question II is the joint Congressional ('Tonkin Bay') Resolution of August 10, 1964?
(a) Do present United States military operations fall within the terms of the Joint Resolution?
(b) If the Joint Resolution purports to give the Chief Executive authority to commit United States forces to armed conflict limited in scope only by his own absolute discretion, is the Resolution a constitutionally impermissible delegation of all or part of Congress' power to declare war?
These are large and deeply troubling questions. Whether the Court would ultimately reach them depends, of course, upon the resolution of serious preliminary issues of justiciability. We cannot make these problems go away simply by refusing to hear the case of three obscure Army privates. I intimate not even tentative views upon any of these matters, but I think the Court should squarely face them by granting certiorari and setting this case for oral argument.
Mr. Justice MARSHALL took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.
The questions posed by Mr. Justice Stewart cover the wide range of problems which the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations recently explored,1 in connection with the SEATO Treaty of February 19, 1955,2 and the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.3
Mr. Katzenbach, representing the Administration, testified that he did not regard the Tonkin Gulf Resolution to be 'a declaration of war'4 and that while the Resolution was not 'constitutionally necessary' it was 'polit- ically, from an international viewpoint and from a domestic viewpoint, extremely important.'5 He added:6
'The use of the phrase 'to declare war' as it was used in the Constitution of the United States had a particular meaning in terms of the events and the practices which existed at the time it was adopted. * * *
* * *
The view that Congress was intended to play a more active role in the initiation and conduct of war than the above statements might suggest has been espoused by Senator Fulbright (Cong.Rec. Oct. 11, 1967, p. 14683-14690), quoting Thomas Jefferson who said:
'We have already given in example one effectual check to the Dog of war by transferring the power of letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay.'7
These opposed views are reflected in the Prize Cases, 2 Black 635, 17 L.Ed. 459, a five-to-four decision rendered in 1863. Mr. Justice Grier, writing for the majority, emphasized the arguments for strong presidential powers. Justice Nelson, writing for the minority of four, read the Constitution more strictly, emphasizing that what is war in actuality may not constitute war in the constitutional sense. During all subsequent periods in our history through the Spanish-American War, the Boxer Rebellion, two World Wars, Korea, and now Vietnam—the two points of view urged in the Prize Cases have continued to be voiced.
A host of problems is raised. Does the President's authority to repel invasions and quiet insurrections, his powers in foreign relations and his duty to execute faithfully the laws of the United States, including its treaties, justify what has been threatened of petitioners? What is the relevancy of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the yearly appropriations in support of the Vietnam effort?
The London Treaty (59 Stat. 1546), the SEATO Treaty (6 U.S.T. 81, 1955), the Kellogg-Briand Pact (46 Stat. 2343), and Article 39 of Chapter VII of the UN Charter (59 Stat. 1043) deal with various aspects of wars of 'aggression.'
Do any of them embrace hostilities in Vietnam, or give rights to...
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