The
AUMF of 2002 stated, “[T]he president is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq.”
In 2011, President Barack Obama ordered a military intervention in Libya without asking for congressional approval. Forces were engaged there for about eight months as the Obama administration argued that its military presence didn’t fall under the War Powers Resolution. In 2013, President Obama took the unusual step of asking Congress to approve intervention in the Syrian civil war, after he initially indicated he had the constitutional powers to order limited military strikes without its approval. Congress then deferred to act in Syria. At the time, the Obama administration argued that it didn’t need congressional authorization under the 2002 AUMF.
In 2017, President Trump ordered missile strikes against Syria after a chemical warfare attack, and supporters including Mitch McConnell felt it was permissible under the 2002 AUMF. The Trump administration
argued that the attacks were allowed under the president’s Article II powers to protect the “national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.” Also in 2020, Trump cited the 2002 AUMF as supporting his decision to order a fatal drone strike against Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
In recent years, President Joseph Biden
also cited the AUMF of 2002 and the same Article II powers asserted by the first Trump administration in taking military actions against Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and the Red Sea.
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