Question.

Yes.

Joseph Botwinick

 

An interesting question, poncho.

From Article II, Section 2:

"Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States"

From Article I, Section 8:

"To declare war"

Therefore, outside of a declaration of war by the Congress I would answer, "no".

But since the federal government doesn't follow its constitution for all practical purposes, I don't think that the answer really matters.

 

We are always into the actual service of the United States as long as Congress appropriates funds for the military.

He is always the Commander in Chief, a duty that cannot be delegated. All those who were previously referred to as "CinC" were told to stop in 2002.

 

Which, of course, gets into the question of having a standing army - which I don't think the framers of the constitution had in mine when they wrote it.

Perhaps it should be amended to deal with the idea of a standing army.