# Commander in Chief The office created by Article II, Section 2, Clause 1: "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States." The clause is a grant of command, not a grant of the war power. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the authority to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, and to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces. The traditional reading — Congress decides *whether*, the President decides *how* — has eroded steadily since 1945, as presidents have claimed inherent Article II authority to initiate force short of a declared war. [[Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer]] (1952) remains the governing framework for testing such claims, and Justice Jackson's concurrence its most cited passage. [[Unitary Executive Theory]] presses the clause further, treating congressional constraints on military decisions — including the 60-day clock in the [[War Powers Resolution]] — as unconstitutional intrusions. See [[War Powers Decision Flow]] and [[Civil-Military Relations]].