Lawfare Daily: What the War Powers Resolution Means for Iran
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In February, the Trump administration launched Operation Epic Fury in Iran—without congressional approval. The War Powers Resolution is supposed to constrain the president's ability to wage war. But is it?
On today's podcast, Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett talks with Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson about what that law says, whether it's affecting the administration's conduct, and how—or if—it can be enforced. You can read more of Scott's analysis in Lawfare here: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/law-and-the-iran-war--after-the-first-60-days
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Catherine Pompilio from Lawfare. You might know me from tracking government |
| 0:09.2 | noncompliance and habeas corpus cases or running Lawfares's January 6th project. I also work |
| 0:14.7 | behind the scenes to ensure Lawfare's articles are in tip-top shape. Lawfare is built around one |
| 0:20.1 | core idea, reliable, independent, non-partisan |
| 0:23.5 | expert analysis delivered at the pace of news. At a time when trusted institutions is strained, |
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| 1:04.6 | Thanks for listening and for caring about the things that matter. |
| 1:14.5 | Music that matter. The truth is all these statutes, and particularly the WordPress resolution may be a little |
| 1:18.0 | more vulnerable than others, all statutes have kind of require interpretation to be |
| 1:22.5 | understood. The question is, you know, who gets to interpret and how stable do those interpretations need to be? |
| 1:29.2 | I'm Natalie Orpat, executive editor of Lawfare, with my colleague, Lawfare Senior Editor, Scott R. Anderson. |
| 1:36.6 | But all of these kind of nuances, while there's a lot of inconsistencies what the Trump administration is doing, |
| 1:42.2 | they don't always matter that much because the only |
| 1:46.0 | entity whose view of the War Powers Resolution matters right now is the executive branches. |
| 1:52.8 | Today we're talking about the War Powers Resolution, the law that's supposed to limit the president's |
| 1:57.7 | power to wage war and what it means for the U.S. conflict in Iran. |
... |
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