When two congressional resolutions on the Iran war produced no actual change, Rep. Thomas Massie decided litigation was the logical next step.
He signed on as the only Republican co-sponsor of a resolution that would compel House Speaker Mike Johnson to sue the administration outright, arguing the White House has broken federal law twice over.
“They are in blatant violation of two sections of the War Powers Resolution of 1973,” he said, then walked through the legal reasoning in detail. “For the first time since the law was enacted, a concurrent resolution has passed in accordance with 5(c) of the law, but the White House has ignored it. It seems they’ve assumed the law is unconstitutional, but no court has ever found that to be the case, so the law remains on the books while the White House flouts it. In the 1983 case INS v. Chadha, the Supreme Court did not opine on the 1973 War Powers Resolution. It’s time for the courts to settle this, and that’s what our legislation directs.”
Last night, @RepRoKhanna and I joined @brikeilarcnn on CNN’s The Source. In part one of our interview, we discussed the unconstitutional and unpopular war with Iran.
American servicemen and women are dying, and gas and fertilizer prices are soaring. It’s time to end this war. pic.twitter.com/VOp9iljGWB
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 23, 2026
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Massie isn’t doing this alone.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is leading the resolution, joined by Reps. Jim McGovern, Gabe Amo, Pramila Jayapal, Jason Crow and Ro Khanna alongside Massie. Meeks was clear about his plan once the House returns from recess. “I’m gonna force a vote on that so that we can now go to the courts and sue the administration for not following the will of Congress,” he told reporters.
.@RepGregoryMeeks (D-NY) says he will try to sue the Trump administration for not adhering to the Iran war powers resolution: “We can now go to the courts and sue the administration for not following the will of Congress.” pic.twitter.com/F3EV5QwwSS
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 23, 2026
Massie’s complaint goes beyond a single missed deadline.
He argues the administration has been resetting the war’s legal clock every time it announces a temporary ceasefire, effectively dodging the 60-day authorization limit indefinitely.
“They’ve perpetuated a ruse that the 60-day limit on Presidential military activity does not apply with respect to the Iran war, because each time they effect a temporary ceasefire, the statutory clock restarts. We believe no court would agree with this absurdity, and this should be litigated as well,” he said.
He didn’t spare his own party’s leadership either. “Speaker Johnson has chosen to let the power of our institution atrophy and is doing harm to our constitutional authority by his inaction motivated by political expediency. Although both Iraq wars and the war in Afghanistan were authorized by AUMFs from Congress, the Trump administration has sought no such Congressional authorization for the war in Iran, and is therefore operating unconstitutionally.”
The war at the center of all this has now run past 145 days.
Only four Republicans, Massie, Brian Fitzpatrick, Warren Davidson and Tom Barrett, have consistently voted with Democrats on every war powers measure since fighting began, most recently backing a 214-208 resolution passed just days after four U.S. troops were killed in the Middle East. Jayapal, who introduced that resolution, framed the fight in broader terms. “This is not a partisan issue. Vast majorities of Americans, of all parties, believe that this is an unconstitutional, illegal war that needs to stop.”
Featured image courtesy of EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo
