Government seeks to dismiss anti-war lawsuit

BOSTON -- The federal government Thursday asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to bar the president from launching a war against Iraq without an explicit declaration of war from Congress.

The federal court should not get involved in this "delicate international political scenario," the government's attorneys argued in court papers.

A group of U.S. servicemen, their parents and six congressmen filed the lawsuit last week. A hearing on the injunction request was scheduled for Monday.

The government argues in its motion to dismiss that the October resolution gives the president permission to go to war if he deems it necessary to protect national security. The government also says the president has broad military powers as commander in chief of the armed forces.

Attorney John Bonifaz, who represents the 15 plaintiffs, scoffed at the government's contention that blocking a war until Congress takes further action would harm efforts to peacefully disarm Iraq.

"This is about whether or not the president is going to be checked with respect to a long-standing separation of powers when it comes to matters of war and peace," Bonifaz said. "It is Congress' duty and responsibility to declare war, not the president's."

The plaintiffs include Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., Jim McDermott, D-Wash., Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., and Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, as well as members of the military.

In 1990, before the Persian Gulf War, a federal judge rejected a similar lawsuit filed against President George H.W. Bush by 54 members of Congress.