President Trump's "massive and continued operation" against Iran violates the Constitution and the founding principles of our nation. The president acted unilaterally and unlawfully: without authorization from Congress and without any imminent threat to the United States. But, by failing to respond to the other unauthorized hostilities initiated by Trump, Congress is complicit in this new abuse. If members of Congress do not take action now to curb this latest and far more consequential abuse of power, all they will do is embolden Trump even further. The act of taking the country to war without being accountable to anyone was one of the chief dangers the founders of our Constitution wanted to avoid. That is why they were careful to grant the power to declare war to Congress, not to a president modeled on the British monarchy. The “temptation” to take the country to war, James Madison argued, would be too great “for a single man,” especially since “war is, in effect, the true seed of the executive’s aggrandizement.” Trump has ignored this fundamental constitutional restraint. In the last 48 hours, U.S. military forces have carried out a deep strike against Iranian military assets, and Iran has responded by attacking several U.S. military bases in the region. There was no debate in Congress, let alone authorization. Nor was there any unforeseen threat or imminent attack from Iran, which would have conferred upon the president the inherent power as commander-in-chief to “repel sudden attacks.” To be clear, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was a brutal figure whose forces murdered thousands of his own people for protesting. His regime has sown chaos in the Middle East for years. But none of this constitutes a legitimate authorization for war. By acting unilaterally, Trump has usurped Congress’s war powers. In any case, this Congress has enabled that usurpation by failing to hold the president accountable for his past abuses.After Trump attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities last June, Congress rejected efforts to invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a law that allows for halting unauthorized hostilities. Then, Congress again blocked another initiative to implement the War Powers Resolution after Trump’s bombing of Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro in January. There was almost no debate in Congress over the Christmas Day bombing of Nigeria, and attempts to end attacks on civilian vessels in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific have failed to gain bipartisan support. Despite valiant efforts by Senators Rand Paul, Tim Kaine, and others, the president’s allies in Congress have prevailed. This level of congressional subservience is new and alarming. During Trump’s first term, Congress invoked the War Powers Resolution twice: in 2019 to compel Trump to end U.S. military involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and in 2020 to prevent an escalation of the conflict after Trump ordered the assassination of an Iranian general. When President Barack Obama intervened in Libya in 2011, the House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the unauthorized military operation and declaring that the president “should not deploy” ground military forces. Congress also imposed funding restrictions to prohibit unauthorized hostilities in Cambodia in 1965, Nicaragua in 1983, and Bosnia in 1993. Of course, Congress has not always resisted every unilateral action by presidents. Congress remained silent on President George H.W. Bush’s unauthorized invasion of Panama in 1989. Nor did it resist President Clinton's unauthorized attacks on al-Qaeda facilities in 1998 in retaliation for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But these cases did involve genuine attacks on U.S. personnel and thus, in a sense, conferred upon him the power of the president as commander-in-chief of the military to defend the nation. Moreover, congressional silence was the exception rather than the rule, as members of Congress were actively debating contemporary military operations in several countries, from Iraq to Somalia and Haiti. In short, this Congress has led us into uncharted territory by completely abdicating its constitutional role to a president more prone than ever to abuse executive power. But it is not too late to change course. This week,Both the House of Representatives and the Senate will vote on whether to invoke the War Powers Resolution and end future hostilities in Iran. There is strong reason to believe that many members who previously refused to invoke war powers will now support this initiative. The president has promised not just “precision strikes,” but a full-scale war that will last “as long as we want.” Several military leaders have warned of the risks of American casualties. A potentially protracted conflict that could destabilize the region and impose incalculable costs in American lives and funds must be democratically debated and authorized by Congress. If Congress fails to act, the message it sends to the president will be crystal clear: he has the power to use military force whenever and however he pleases, without regard for the Constitution. Who knows where such unchecked power will end up in the hands of a president who has openly considered military action against multiple countries, including allies like Denmark? For the sake of our Constitution and our country, Congress cannot allow this to happen. (*) Katherine Yon Ebright is a Freedom and National Security attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice. This article was published with permission from Brennan en Espanol.This article was published with permission from Brennan en Espanol.