Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

April 8, 2011

In an April 1 memo, the Obama administration claimed that the president needed no congressional authorization of any kind to commit aggressive war against Libya, since the possibility of ?regional instability? and injury to the ?credibility and effectiveness of the United Nations Security Council? threatened our national security.

The memo asserts that a ?pattern of executive conduct, made under claim of right, extended over many decades and engaged in by Presidents of both parties, evidences the existence of broad constitutional power.? It does no such thing, of course, any more than the persistence of armed robbery in defiance of laws against theft makes those laws irrelevant.

Of particular interest is the Obama administration?s claim that ?the United States government has recognized that `[t]he continued existence of the United Nations as an effective international organization is a paramount United States interest.??

The term ?paramount,? of course, is a synonym for ?supreme?; this means that preservation of the UN ? not our country?s independence -- is the supreme foreign policy interest of the United States government.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.