DU Constitutional Lawyers

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Can a president abrogate an existing treaty without the approval of Congress ?

I know the Senate has to approve a treaty by a 2/3 vote but does the Senate also have to approve abrogating one.

I found this nugget:

Article 10 of the treaty provided that either Party could terminate it one year after notice had been given to the other Party. Accordingly, the treaty came to an end on 1 January 1980, one year after the United States established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China on 1 January 1979.

The authority for President Jimmy Carter to unilaterally annul a treaty, in this case the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, was the topic of the Supreme Court case Goldwater v. Carter in which the court declined to rule on the legality of this action, given the political nature rather than judicial nature of the case, thereby allowing it to proceed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-American_Mutual_Defense_Treaty

[hlthe2b]

1. Watch Laurence Tribe's twitter account. I'm betting he will comment on this. n/t

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Interesting-- it looks like the SC simply punted...

They claim that Congress and the President have to come to an impasse before the Court gets involved, but it seems like the Senate suing the President because he didn't listen to it is as impasse as it gets.

It looks like it was just certain Senate members suing, not the whole Senate, which might have made a difference.