Lawmakers Sue Obama on Operations in Libya

Speaker of the House John Boehner

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers Wednesday sought to throw a roadblock in front of President Barack Obama's Libya policy, filing a lawsuit that charges that US military operations are unconstitutional.

Anti-war Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich and nine other members of the House signed the lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's circumvention of Congress in authorizing use of military force in a protracted effort to oust longtime Libyan ruler Moamer Kadhafi.

"With regard to the war in Libya, we believe that the law was violated. We have asked the courts to move to protect the American people from the results of these illegal policies," Kucinich said in a statement as the lawmakers filed their suit in federal court in Washington.

The suit "challenges policy that any president can take the US to war unilaterally," said the lawmakers, who included Republicans Walter Jones of North Carolina and Ron Paul of Texas.

The White House has faced dissatisfaction on both sides of the aisle in Congress, where lawmakers have warned that Obama may be falling afoul of a law aimed at curtailing US presidents' ability to deploy the military overseas.

Senators and representatives have also expressed concerns about how long the conflict against Kadhafi is taking, its impact on the turmoil in the Middle East and on US standing in the Muslim world.

Here are some comments from the public:

Congress has not declared war since WW2. In the meantime, there has been Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Odd that Congress has now got exercised about Libya, in which the U.S. has a minor role.

fix the budget and economy and stop wasting our taxpayer dollars on nonsense

where were the lawsuits when we went to war in Iraq? Stop with the BS and work together to fix the economy. They want Obama to fail so bad that they're willing to take the rest of the country down as well....sad

I would love to see us stop fighting each other in court over every disagreement. Our government is becoming more dysfunctional every day

Pathetic really anything to take time out from what they should be doing. We the people should sue all of Congress for their failure to govern

Personally, I believe some Congressmen will do anything to make President Obama a one term president.  It matters less to them what is in the public interest vs. partisan politics.  Also, some will do anything to keep their name in the paper, get paid to be on television shows spouting their opinion, or sell their book and build their personal fortune.  I rate the performance of Congress about 10%.  We should all be working together to deal with the economy, unemployment, and health care of all citizens.  Congress should stop the bull and get to work on real issues and necessary compromises.