TITAN vs. TITAN: President Trump and the Federal Courts Face Off Over His Temporary Travel Ban | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Section 217(a)(12) provides that a visa will not be waived "from Iraq, Syria, or other country or area of concern." Specifically, the section states that a visa will not be waived for any "alien who has been present, at any time on or after March 1, 2011, in Iraq or Syria, or any country designated by the Secretary of State or Secretary of Homeland Security [under section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (50 U.S.C. 2405) (as continued in effect under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)), section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2780), section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371), or any other provision of law], as a country whose government has repeatedly provided support of acts of international terrorism or has provided support of acts of international terrorism." [https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-4391.html ]

    II. Sovereignty -

    "A country that can no longer say who can, and who cannot, come in is no longer sovereign. A government that can no longer control immigration is no longer a legitimate government."

    Sovereignty is an important concept and probably the one most ignored in this current debate on the Executive Order's temporary travel ban (from aliens from terrorist nations).

    Sovereignty refers to the authority of a state to govern itself and to make all necessary laws and policies for the benefit of its physical jurisdiction and for its citizens. It's most critical function is to keep the state safe and secure and to ensure its continued existence as an independent state. In other words, its most important function is national security. Immigration is intimately tied to the function of national security.

    National security is a concept that a government, along with its parliaments, should protect the state and its citizens against all kind of "national" crises through a variety of power projections, such as political power, diplomacy, economic power, military might, and so on.

    The Heritage Foundation published an excellent overview of the responsibility of the federal government in providing national security. The article explains:

    Those who have not done so recently would benefit from studying what the United States Constitution says about the federal government's responsibility to provide for the common defense. Most Americans had to memorize the preamble to the Constitution when they were children, so they are aware that one of the purposes of the document was to "provide for the common defense." But they are not aware of the extent to which the document shows the Founders' concern for national security.

    In brief, the Constitution says three things about the responsibility of the federal government for the national defense.

    National defense is the priority job of the national government. Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution lists 17 separate powers that are granted to the Congress. Six of those powers deal exclusively with the national defense--far more than any other specific area of governance--and grant the full range of authorities necessary for establishing the defense of the nation as it was then understood. Congress is given specific authority to declare war, raise and support armies, provide for a navy, establish the rules for the operation of American military forces, organize and arm the militias of the states, and specify the conditions for converting the militias into national service.

    Article Two establishes the President as the government's chief executive officer. Much of that Article relates to the method for choosing the President and sets forth the general executive powers of his office, such as the appointment and veto powers. The only substantive function of government specifically assigned to the President relates to national security and foreign policy, and the first such responsibility granted him is authority to command the military; he is the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States."

    National defense is the only mandatory function of the national government. Most of the powers granted to Congress are permissive in nature. Congress is given certain authorities but not required by the Constitution to exercise them. For example, Article One, Section Eight gives Congress power to pass a bankruptcy code, but Congress actually did not enact bankruptcy laws until well into the 19th century.

    But the Constitution does require the federal government to protect the nation. Article Four, Section Four states that the "United States shall guarantee to every State a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion." In other words, even if the federal government chose to exercise no other power, it must, under the Constitution, provide for the common defense.

    National defense is exclusively the function of the national government. Under our Constitution, the states are generally sovereign, which means that the legitimate functions of government not specifically granted to the federal government are reserved to the states. But Article One, Section 10 does specifically prohibit the states, except with the consent of Congress, from keeping troops or warships in time of peace or engaging in war, the only exception being that states may act on their own if actually invaded. (This was necessary because, when the Constitution was written, primitive forms of communication and transportation meant that it could take weeks before Washington was even notified of an invasion.)

    In discussing the topic of national security, it is important to understand some of the concepts that the term incorporates.

    The first is the concept of power. It can best be defined as a nation's possession of control of its sovereignty and destiny. It implies some degree of control of the extent to which outside forces can harm the country. Hard, or largely military, power is about control, while soft power is mainly about influence--trying to persuade others, using methods short of war, to do something.

    Instruments of power exist along a spectrum, from using force on one end to diplomatic means of persuasion on the other. Such instruments include the armed forces; law enforcement and intelligence agencies; and various governmental agencies dedicated to bilateral and public diplomacy, foreign aid, and international financial controls. Variables of power include military strength, economic capacity, the will of the government and people to use power, and the degree to which legitimacy--either in the eyes of the people or in the eyes of other nations or international organizations--affects how power is wielded. The measure of power depends not only on hard facts, but also on perceptions of will and reputation.

    Another term to understand properly is military strength. This term refers to military capacity and the capabilities of the armed forces, and it is a capacity that may not actually be used. It often is understood as a static measure of the power of a country, but in reality, military strength is a variable that is subject to all sorts of factors, including the relative strength of opponents, the degree to which it is used effectively, or whether it is even used at all.

    Force is the use of a military or law enforcement capacity to achieve some objective. It is the actual use of strength and should not be equated with either strength or power per se. Using force unwisely or unsuccessfully can diminish one's power and strength. By the same token, using it effectively can enhance power. Force is an instrument of power just as a tool or some other device would be, but unlike institutional instruments like the armed forces, its use in action is what distinguishes it from static instruments of strength like military capacity. Thus, force should be understood narrowly as an applied instrument of coercion.

    Finally, there is national defense. Strictly speaking, this refers to the ability of the armed forces to defend the sovereignty of the nation and the lives of its people; however, since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the mission of homeland security--using domestic as well as military instruments to defend the nation from terrorist and other attacks either inside or outside the country--has come to be understood as an element of national defense.

    III. The War on Terror and the President as Commander-in-Chief -

    On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 people were killed horrifically, including more than 400 police officers and firefighters. The Twin Towers collapsed, several surrounding buildings collapsed as well, and one section of the Pentagon was destroyed. Just like the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was a day that will live in infamy. It will continue to define certain human beings, certain groups, a fanatic religious ideology as pure evil.

    [Osama bin Laden would issue a "Letter to America" in November 2002, explicitly stating that al-Qaeda's motives for their attacks included: US support of Israel, support for the "attacks against Muslims" in Somalia, support of Philippines against Muslims in the Moro conflict, support for Israeli "aggression" against Muslims in Lebanon, support of Russian "atrocities against Muslims" in Chechnya, pro-American governments in the Middle East (who "act as your agents") being against Muslim interests, support of Indian "oppression against Muslims" in Kashmir, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq].

    As the dust barely settled in lower Manhattan on 9/11. President Bush addressed the American people and the world. He said: "Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices -- secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers. Moms and dads. Friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could. The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

    In the months that followed, the US learned just how barbaric the attackers are. On January 23, 2002, Daniel Pearl, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, left his apartment in Karachi, Pakistan for an interview. He had temporarily set up a residence in Karachi to report on America's War on Terror. He was following a lead. He would never return that day. He was kidnapped and beheaded, with the captors turning over a 3-minute videotape of his grisly demise. President Bush watched the video. After the severed Pearl's head, they cut up his body into ten pieces and put it into the shopping bags. They walked around with the bags to find a place to bury them, until they finally dug a hole just outside the building where he was killed. The floor of the room was then washed and they held sunset prayer there.

    Months later, the US would articulate a new national security policy which would become known as the Bush Doctrine. The Bush doctrine signaled a radical break from previous national security strategies and fundamentally changed the way the US would act toward the rest of the world; the era of deterrence and containment was over. Deterrence and containment defined US policy at the end of 1945 and into the Cold War. The Bush Doctrine, defined in the positional paper "The National Security Strategy of the United States," which was written by President Bush and the State Department (September 2002), was the answer to terrorism. As outlined in this paper, post-9/11 US foreign policy rests on three main pillars: a doctrine of unrivaled military supremacy, the concept of preemptive or preventive war, and a willingness to act unilaterally if multilateral cooperation cannot be achieved. President Bush argued that the new policy was necessary to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among rogue states and terrorist groups. The policy of deterrence, he maintained, was no longer sufficient to prevent a rogue nation or terrorist organization from using nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. He explained: "Given the goals of rogue states and terrorists, the United States can no longer solely rely on a reactive posture as we have in the past. The inability to deter a potential attacker, the immediacy of today's threats, and the magnitude of potential harm that could be caused by our adversaries' choice of weapons, do not permit that option. We cannot let our enemies strike first. Traditional concepts of deterrence will not work against a terrorist enemy whose avowed tactics are wanton destruction and the targeting of innocents; whose so-called soldiers seek martyrdom in death and whose most potent protection is statelessness."

    On Sept. 14, 2001, the U.S. Congress in effect declared war when it passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) as a joint resolution. The vote was overwhelmingly one-sided. In the House, the vote was 420 Ayes, 1 Nay, and 10 Not Voting. In the Senate, the vote was 98 Ayes, 0 Nays, and 2 Present/Not Voting. Rep. Barbara Lee was the nay vote in the House.

    The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president of the United States to notify Congress within 48 hours of ordering US armed forces for a military operation overseas. Those forces cannot operate in a deployed status for more than 60 days. Combat military operations lasting longer than that time frame require a congressional Declaration of War OR an Authorization for the Use of Military Force. Bush almost unanimously got that AUMF from Congress in 2001 when he declared the war on terrorism.

    The 2001 AUMF passed by Congress in the wake of the September 11 attacks authorized the President to use force, if necessary, to seek retribution (seek justice) for the attacks on 9/11. Specifically, the AUMF states: "The President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons." In other words, with the AUMF, the President has been given a free hand in conducting the War on Terrorism and also in identifying the "enemy" or "enemies." All he has to do his tie a person to an "organization" such as al-Qaeda and make a case that the person in some way "aided" the terrorists or will pose a threat by possibly or potentially engaging in future terrorist acts. [Note: There is no exception made for American citizens. There is no distinction between persons on American soil or in other countries].

    The AUMF is the legal justification for the War on Terrorism. It authorizes military operations on a broad scope and in ways to be determined by the President. It elevates the president to Commander-in-chief. It has been used as the legal justification for American military action against al-Qaeda terrorists anywhere in the world, and as the legal justification for the continuing War on Terrorism.

    It is inconceivable that a court, let alone the highest court in the land - the Supreme Court, would overturn the power to declare war that is vested in the Congress. Congress alone has the power to declare war. It is a power explicitly and expressly delegated to the Congress in Article I of the US Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, sometimes referred to as the War Powers Clause, vests in the Congress the power to declare war, in the following wording: "The Congress shall have Power.... To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water." Congress need not know the details of the war or how the President intends to "command" the war effort; the details do not necessarily limit the declaration of war. It is the declaration or the Authorization for Use of Military Force that establishes that the country is at war. A government during peacetime is much different from a government in time of war. [See Federalist No. 45, written by James Madison]

    Congress controls the decision to wage war in another way. It provides the funding. Congress funds the war. And without fail, Congress has provided funding for the War on Terror since 2001.

    Again, once the country is at war, the president assumes almost plenary war powers (consistent with the Constitution, of course) and the nation goes into self-preservation and survival mode.

    In 2002, President Bush asked Congress for a separate Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) for the Iraqi War, which he received.

    In 2012, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which, like other versions of the bill before it, specified the budget and expenditures of the US Dept. of Defense. A version of the bill had passed for 55 years. However, this bill was a bit different. It contained provisions that many found extremely troubling.

    The most controversial provisions were contained in subsections 1021-1022 of Title X, Subtitle D, entitled "Counter-Terrorism," which declared that the "battlefield" in the War on Terror also included the United States itself. It authorized the indefinite military detention of persons the government suspects of involvement in terrorism, including US citizens (termed "belligerents") arrested on American soil.