By Week’s End, Trump’s War Will Be Plainly Illegal April 27, 2026
By Erwin Chemerinsky
Mr. Chemerinsky is the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley.
See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Times on Google President Trump’s war with Iran is almost certainly illegal: Congress hasn’t declared war or authorized it by statute, and it wasn’t precipitated by an imminent attack or a national emergency. If the war continues through Friday without congressional approval, it will clearly be illegal, having passed the 60-day threshold and the 48-hour notice period that the president is given, under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, to conduct this kind of military operation.
Whether you support or oppose this war — or, as Mr. Trump has called it, this “excursion” — time will be up. And it is the obligation of the federal courts to say so.
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