Trump, through his SOS and SECDEF, certified that the reforms necessary to release the funds had been made.
If conditions changed Trump could have withdrawn those certifications or asked Congress to rescind the appropriation. He did neither.
And please don't make the stupid argument that SECDEF sending an official notification letter to Congress doesn't count as Executive certification.
Here I am breaking my own resolve to not address you again in this thread.
You claim that is a stupid argument. Why? In what way does a law that cuts the PRESIDENT out of the loop between the DOD, a subordinate department of the Executive Branch, and the Legislative Branch, at all Constitutional? It can’t be. Especially when Foreign Affairs are concerned.
YOUR assertion that it is stupid is the one that is stupid. The attempt to control Foreign Affairs by the House of Representatives with this provision is blatantly Unconstitutional. It was unconstitutional when it was introduced, it was unconstitutional when it was passed, and it was unconstitutional when it was signed. Just because it wasn’t recognized as unconstitutional does not mean it wasn’t. There are plenty of laws that go through that process that aren’t caught as being unconstitutional. They are LATER ruled unconstitutional when litigated.
Dershowitz is pointing out how obviously unconstitutional the spending control basis this one is. The reporting that Congress included in the more current version is a consequence of the unconstitutionality of 1974 Spending Control Act not recognizing that certain spending had implications in the area of Foreign Affairs that SHOULD have been addressed in that act but were not. Had they been, it would have better met the constitutional questions, but likely still would not have met constitutional muster.
Your absurd idea that President Trump certified through his Secretary of State and through his Secretary of Defense, without his active, positive decision is patently absurd. That makes them all equivalents to Jonathan Swift’s Brobdingnagian Flappers, servants who would flap the mouths and ears of their masters when in the opinion of the servants it was OK for their masters to hear or say anything. ABSURD, semimojo. As I’ve told you many times before, such a decision is NOT THEIR’S TO MAKE, but you keep on, keeping on ignoring that fact. You turn the facts on their head.
What part of the literal fact that ALL power in the Executive Branch resides in the President, do you fail to grasp? All else derives from the Constitutional power and authority granted to that person. In that position, the chief executive is entitled to confidential and candid advice without threat of having that confidence and candied advice ever being revealed to be second guessed by criticism from people who look back with later knowledge of after the fact knowledge, lest advisors be less than open and candid in their honest opinions for fear of later retributions. This was much discussed in the Federalist Papers.
These others whom you want to have the power to make these decisions, to pass on communications Willy-nilly to Congress, bureaucrats of whatever stripe setting spending dates, etc., are only mere advisors to the President to help him do his job of faithfully executing the laws of the country, which have a hierarchy of primacy, with the CONSTITUTION atop all of them, and in meeting with foreign nations, or in addressing the problems of the nation. Get those basic facts through your head!