JURIST - Paper Chase: US peace groups file constitutional challenge to Iraq war

[JURIST] A coalition of anti-war activists represented by the Constitutional Law Clinic at Rutgers University Law School-Newark [academic website] Tuesday filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release, PDF] in US District Court for New Jersey seeking a declaratory judgment that the war in Iraq violates the US constitution. The groups argue that under the US Constitution only Congress has the authority to declare war, and ask the court to declare the Iraq war illegal because action was initiated without Congressional approval. The New Jersey Law Journal has more.

In the UK, other activists have also attempted to directly or indirectly challenge the legality of the war. Last month the judicial members of the House of Lords, Britain's highest court, denied a request by two mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq for a public inquiry into the legality of UK's decision to go to war in Iraq.

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