In papers filed on Friday, February 21, 9 parents of active military, and 6 additional Members of Congress were added to the suit.

A legal challenge to the President's right to go to war without a formal Declaration of War by Congress was filed on February 13th. MFSO members Jeffrey McKenzie, Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson are on the original list of plaintiffs along with 6 members of Congress, 3 members of the military and several other families. In papers filed on Friday, February 21, 9 parents of active military, and 6 additional Members of Congress were added to the suit. Click here for copies of the legal filings including the Amendment to Add Plaintiffs and the Plaintiff's Reply Brief, as well as press releases about the suit and links to press reports.

Hearing on Monday February 24th at 10:00 am at the Moakley Federal Court House in Boston

Reuters
February 13, 2003
By Greg Frost

BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers, members of Congress and others sued President Bush on Thursday to prevent the United States from invading Iraq without obtaining a Congressional declaration of war.

"The president is not a king," attorney John Bonifaz told reporters shortly after he filed the civil lawsuit in Boston federal court.

Bonifaz, who is seeking an injunction against Bush on constitutional grounds, brought the suit on behalf of three members of the military, six parents of U.S. troops and six members of Congress, including Democratic Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and James McDermott of Washington.

The lawsuit also names Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a defendant.

The suit noted that the framers of the U.S. Constitution aimed to deny presidents the imperial war-making powers of European monarchs, and said the administration's plans for war on Iraq would violate that separation of powers.

Bonifaz said Bush did not obtain the authority to invade Iraq in October when Congress easily passed a resolution backing the possible use of force against Baghdad. He said the October resolution was unconstitutional.

"Congress could not have ceded the authority to declare war to the president any more than it could have to the Supreme Court," he said. "A war against Iraq without a Congressional declaration of war will be illegal and unconstitutional."

PROSPECTS DIM

If history is any indication, the suit's prospects are dim.

In 1990, 54 Democratic congressmen launched a similar legal challenge to prevent Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, from forcing Iraqi troops out of Kuwait without congressional approval. A federal judge rejected that suit as flawed because the 54 plaintiffs did not represent a majority of Congress.

Gerard Clark, a constitutional law expert at Suffolk University in Boston, noted the United States fought wars in Iraq, Vietnam and Korea in the 20th century -- all without a formal Congressional declaration of war.

"The Constitution does require (Congress to declare war) but through really 50 years of usage, that specific constitutional provision has not been an obstacle to presidents," Clark said.

"I would be very surprised if the court issued an injunction against the president," he said. "Sympathetic as I am to the cause, I don't think it has much chance."

'IRREPARABLE HARM'

The United States and Britain have nearly 150,000 troops in the Gulf region and thousands more on the way to prepare for a possible invasion to eliminate what Washington charges are Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs.

Iraq denies having such weapons and some other countries, led by France, Germany, Russia and China, are pressing Washington and London to delay an invasion to allow U.N. arms inspectors to complete their work in Iraq.

The lawsuit also said the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm if Bush proceeds with an invasion of Iraq.

Many of the plaintiffs, including the three active members of the military and two of the parents, withheld their names in fear of possible repercussions.

But Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessin of Boston said they had attached their names to protect Richardson's 25-year-old son Joe, an Arab language-trained radio reconnaissance commando in the U.S. Marines stationed somewhere in the Gulf.

"From our perspective, those who say we gotta go to war aren't going anywhere, nor are their loved ones. It's other people's children who are now in harm's way," said Lessin, Joe's stepmother.

"We worry about Joe. We don't want him to be wounded or die and we don't want him to be forced to wound or kill innocent Iraqi civilians. That would kill a part of him and a part of us," she said.

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