Article I, Section 8, Clause 12:

[The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; . . .

The Framers did not insert the constitutional clauses that grant Congress authority to raise and support armies, as well as other related authorities, to endow the National Government rather than the states with these powers, but to designate the department of the Federal Government that would exercise the powers. The English King was endowed with the power not only to initiate war but the power to raise and maintain armies and navies.1 Because these powers had been used historically to the detriment of the liberties and well-being of Englishmen and the English Declaration of Rights of 1688 provided that the King could not maintain standing armies without the consent of Parliament, the Framers vested these basic powers in Congress.2

Footnotes

1

W. Blackstone, Commentaries 263 (St. G. Tucker ed., 1803).

2

3 Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 1187 (1833). While these clauses do not completely divest states of authority in this area, the Supreme Court has held that the states renounced their right to interfere with national policy in this area in the plan of the Convention. Torres v. Tex. Dep’t of Pub. Safety, No. 20-603, slip op. 6 (U.S. 2022). Thus, Congress “may legislate at the expense of traditional state sovereignty to raise and support the Armed Forces.” Id. at 9.