Treaty Clause, which requires the president to submit major foreign policy agreements that constitute treaties to the Senate for two-thirds approval. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution states that the president “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.” Knowing it lacked the requisite 67 votes to approve this agreement, Mr. Obama deemed the agreement to be an “executive agreement” that would only bind Mr. Obama and not subsequent presidents. In fact, only 42 members of the Senate supported the deal, 25 votes short of what would be necessary for a treaty. Of course, even if a subsequent president repudiates this unlawful agreement, the sanctions relief cannot be reversed.
The Obama administration also violated the Take Care Clause of the Constitution. Article II, Section III holds that the president must “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” In May 2015, both houses of Congress passed by overwhelming majorities, and the president signed into law, H.R. 1191, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 (the “Review Act” also known as the “Corker-Cardin Bill”) that provided for congressional oversight of the nuclear deal. The Review Act required the president to submit to Congress the text of the deal as well as all “annexes, appendices, codicils, side agreements, implementing materials, documents and guidance, technical or other understandings, and any related agreements, whether entered into or implemented prior to the agreement or to be entered into or implemented in the future.” The administration violated this language by failing to provide to Congress the side agreements between Iran and the IAEA that provided, among other things, that Iran would be permitted to inspect its own Parchin nuclear site (the agreement Iran breached in late 2015). So in addition to violating the Constitution, Mr. Obama broke his word to Congress by failing to provide these side agreements.
In a further end-run around Congress and the American people, the Obama administration allowed the deal to be brought to the United Nations Security Council for approval before even bringing it to Congress, giving Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping the first word on the agreement.
President Obama’s deal with Iran ignored the legitimate concerns of Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and led these traditional American allies to seek new alliances and, in the case of the latter two, their own nuclear weapons capability. While the Israeli Prime Minister tried to explain to Mr. Obama that “the enemy of my enemy is my enemy,” the Middle East will now be governed by the adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Such arrangements are fragile and unstable. Obama’s dismissive treatment during his administration of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and a steadfast ally, has been a national and moral disgrace as well as a profound strategic blunder that weakens the influence and interests of the U.S. not only in the Middle East but throughout the world. This treatment most likely emboldened several Jewish members of Congress to vote in favor of the Iran nuclear deal, shamefully selling out their constituents and their principles. When you openly mistreat one of your most important allies, your other allies question your reliability and your character.
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