Posted by
Always To The Right on Saturday, September 26, 2009 12:22:25 AM
Found information about this in a book I'm reading, "Not a Suicide
Pact; The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency," by Richard A.
Posner.
SCOTUS case, "United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp."
http://www.enotes.com/supreme-court-drama/united-states-v-c urtiss-wright-export-corp
"Justice
George Sutherland, writing for the 7-1 majority, noted that this case
fell into an area of governing not specifically addressed by the
Constitution. However, he found that simply by the Unites States being
a sovereign (politically independent) nation before the Constitution
was written, that it had certain inherent (natural) powers to conduct
international relations regardless if written in the Constitution or
not. The United States had to meet international responsibilities.
Sutherland wrote,
[T]he investment of the federal government
with the powers of [conducting foreign affairs] did not depend upon . .
. the Constitution. The powers to declare and wage war, to conclude
peace, to make treaties, to maintain diplomatic relations with other
sovereignties, if they had never been mentioned in the Constitution,
would have vested [fixed] in the federal government as necessary
concomitants [parts] of nationality [being an independent nation] . . .
"Further, Sutherland wrote it was primarily the president's
responsibility to carry out foreign policy and he did not need an act
of Congress before taking action. Sutherland commented that the
president has "plenary [absolute] and exclusive [not shared] power . .
. as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of
international relations — a power which does not require as a basis for
its exercise an act of Congress." No specific grant of foreign affairs
powers to the president needs to be provided in the Constitution.
Unlike domestic issues where Congress must supply clear guidelines to
the executive branch when delegating congressional powers, delegation
of foreign affairs powers can be broad giving the president
considerable discretion (choice) on how to proceed."
SCOTUS held
that the USA acquired the powers of a sovereign nation by its
successful revolution against England rather then by a grant in the
Constitution; the nation is prior to the Constitution.