Congressional Authority and the Logan Act

The Logan Act was written during Sam Addams administration and has been ratified. The act itself was meant to keep private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. Joe Q. Public cannot negotiate any agreement with a foreign government without the expressed permission of the United States government. Congressmen and women are not private citizens. They are elected representatives of the people and share equal power with the Executive and Judicial branches, although that has not been apparent under the Obama administration.

The Logan Act:

    “The clear intent of this provision [Logan Act] is to prohibit unauthorized persons from intervening in disputes between the United States and foreign governments. Nothing in section 953 [Logan Act], however, would appear to restrict members of the Congress from engaging in discussions with foreign officials in pursuance of their legislative duties under the Constitution.”

Treason is not the undermining of presidential authority. Congress does not swear an oath to the president, but to the Constitution of the United States and by doing so, and oath to the people. In fact, the president swears an oath to the United States, as does ever military man or woman. In our Republic, an oath to the Constitution is as binding as any other law and failure to serve it faithfully  is a punishable offense.

The letter sent to Iran did not express any will to undermine Obama’s agreement; it simply stated that if the agreement was not ratified through congress, it would be treated as an Executive Order. The next president to enter the oval office could and might do away with any agreement Obama made with Iran. The letter was a statement of fact. No threats were made, and no negotiations ensued.

There have been private interlopers who have not been punished, such as Jesse Jackson and the governments of Cuba and Nicaragua, etc. Although he was a private citizen, he was never prosecuted and it was not labeled treason. It is an unlawful act, however, to date, Jackson has not been prosecuted and it’s unlikely that he will. This is just one example, but the key phrase is private citizen. When we elect representatives, they are endowed with powers very unlike those of the average citizen.

Had the liberals taken a minute to do a simple search on google, they would have known that nothing illegal transpired as congress addressed the concerns of this nation. Many things are written in legalese, but that does not make them impossible to read or decipher. The Logan Act is quite clear in its intent.

The Logan Act will not punish those who have not violated the act and with Jackson’s actions it doesn’t appear those who violate will face punishment, either.