Category: Power to Raise and Maintain Armed Forces
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Military Justice System
Trial and Punishment of Offenses: Servicemen, Civilian Employees, and DependentsUnder its power to make rules for the government and regulation of the armed forces, Congress has set up a system of criminal law binding on all servicemen, with its own substantive laws, its own courts and procedures, a…
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Conscription
ConscriptionThe constitutions adopted during the Revolutionary War by at least nine of the States sanctioned compulsory military service.1 Towards the end of the War of 1812, conscription of men for the army was proposed by James Monroe, then Secreta…
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Appropriations for the Army
Time Limit on Appropriations for the ArmyPrompted by the fear of standing armies to which Story alluded, the framers inserted the limitation that "no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years." In 1904, the question arose whether this provision would be v…
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Armed Forces
Congress Power to Raise and Maintain Armed Forces: Purpose of Specific GrantsThe clauses of the Constitution, which give Congress authority to raise and support armies, and so forth, were not inserted to endow the national government rather than the States with the power to do these things but to de…