Dershowitz to Newsmax: Iran Strikes Constitutional, Critics 'Dead Wrong'

President Donald Trump's decision to launch a surprise military strike against Iran is constitutional and not in violation of federal law, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Sunday on Newsmax while rejecting claims from "dead wrong" critics that the action amounts to an illegal war.

"The Constitution gives the president of the United States the sole authority to be commander in chief of the army, the naval forces, but Article I says declaring war is within the power of Congress," Dershowitz told Newsmax's Greta Van Susteren during special coverage of the strikes on Iran.

Dershowitz said that tension has fueled a longstanding debate over the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of military action.

"So there's a real question about whether the War Powers Act is constitutional," he said. "I don't think it's constitutional. I think the Constitution makes the decision about what powers are allocated to Congress and what powers are allocated to the president."

He noted that the original draft of the Constitution's war powers clause gave Congress broader authority, but that James Madison narrowed it.

"Congress only has the power to declare war," Dershowitz said.

The U.S. has not formally declared war since June 1942, when it declared war on Romania during World War II.

Since then, presidents of both parties have initiated military actions without formal declarations of war, including in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

"Every Democratic president since has taken some military actions without congressional approval," Dershowitz said. "So I think the president's decision to level a surprise attack, one that doesn't permit for Congress to have a debate about it, is completely lawful, completely constitutional, and correct in terms of the national interest of the United States."

Responding to lawmakers who have called the strike illegal, including Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Dershowitz said such claims are premature and unsupported by constitutional law.

"When you get people like Kaine and other senators, even some really reasonable senators, saying this is illegal, they're jumping the gun," he said. "This is not illegal."

Dershowitz pointed to legal challenges, in which he was involved, during the Vietnam War that sought Supreme Court intervention over presidential war powers.

"The court turned down all of those requests," he said. "And so the idea that it's clearly illegal to do what President Trump did is just dead wrong as a matter of constitutional law."

Turning to the broader implications for the Middle East, Dershowitz said he believes confronting Iran could ultimately promote regional peace.

"This is long in coming. This will help promote peace in the Middle East," he said. "There's widespread consensus that unless Iran has a change of regime, there will never be peace in the Middle East."

He added that Iran once maintained alliances with both Israel and the U.S. under the shah and could do so again under different leadership.

"If Iran becomes an ally rather than an enemy, there will be peace in the Middle East for the first time in any of our lifetimes," Dershowitz said. "And what a pivotal moment in history that would be."

Dershowitz also said Sunday that he mourns the American and Israeli service members who have lost their lives in the Iranian action.

"But war takes lives, and the president has the authority to wage war, though not to declare war, though declaring war has become a real anachronism," he said.

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