Disgraced former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn is now telling right-wing crowds that state governors can declare war and that “we’re going to probably see that.”
Flynn made his comments at a campaign rally for QAnon-supporting Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, who has been endorsed by failed, one-term, twice-impeached ex-president Donald Trump, according to HuffPost.
“States’ rights. Did you know that a governor can declare war? A governor can declare war. And we’re going to probably see that.”
Of course, Flynn is 100% incorrect, because the U.S. Constitution clearly spells out in Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, only Congress has the power to “declare war” and “raise and support” armies. Also, the president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces and can federalize National Guard troops with the stroke of a pen, so any governor who declared war would find that he didn’t have any forces he could send into battle.
Frances Hill, a professor of law and dean’s distinguished scholar for the profession at the University of Miami also confirmed that Flynn is full of shit, telling Newsweek:
“Even though various and sundry interpreters of the Constitution have, from time to time, tried to argue that the states are sovereign as well…it is a different kind of sovereignty. They have sovereignty over certain elements of action within their own state—declaring war on anybody in their own state not being among those powers, I suppose I should add.”
Professor Hill also addressed the matter of troops:
“If the National Guard is to be used in a combat situation, that has to be done by the federal government.
“I just think that it’s very dangerous for people to go out…people who still have a voice and who will be covered to some extent, and make claims like this that are simply not true.”
Flynn also got a thorough mocking on social media.
