By Deseret News Mar 21, 1996, 12:00am MST

The United States entered the United Nations via Senate action in 1945. The Senate’s ratification of the U.N. Charter has always been considered the equivalent of a treaty ratification. A treaty, however, is an agreement between two sovereign entities.

Even if the ratification of the U.N. Charter is considered a treaty, treaty law does not supersede the Constitution. This means that no treaty can overrule the Constitution’s limitations on government power. This essential understanding was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in the 1957 decision Reid vs. Covert (354 U.S. 1, 15-19).Several presidents have claimed that U.N. resolutions give them authority to send U.S. armed forces into combat and a variety of other assignments. Each of these presidents has acted as though the Constitution, which does not permit such deployment of our military, is subordinate to treaties and the assumed powers that supposedly have emanated from treaties.

The true purpose of the U.S. military is to protect the lives, liberty and property of the American people. It is only this function that the people allowed themselves to be taxed for. The military has not been formed to police the world, to act as peacemakers or peace enforcers, or to carry out humanitarian and other missions. Nor is it to be the president’s own force to be used in any endeavor he chooses.

Congress alone has the power to declare war. Since war was never declared in Korea, Vietnam or Desert Storm, the use of our forces in those conflicts was totally unconstitutional. Congress should never have permitted this usurpation by the executive branch. Because Congress did, this power has been usurped again and again.

It’s time to return to the Constitution and bring our troops home.

Lee Phipps

Brigham City