Separation of Powers Objections to the Iran Nuclear Agreement

“In a recently published article, “Taking Steel Seizure Seriously: The Iran Nuclear Agreement and the Separation of Powers,” 86 Fordham L. Rev. 1199 (2017), Steven Menashi and I question the constitutional validity of President Barack Obama’s decision, as part of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement with Iran and five other countries, to repeal, in effect, seventeen different Iran-related nuclear sanctions provisions for the JCPOA’s 15-year term. Despite the fact that Congress had legislated extensively in this area, Obama effected this change by entering into a “nonbinding political agreement” with Iran and by aggregating individual waiver provisions in existing sanctions laws into an across-the-board waiver of sanctions.”