The presidency has never been more dangerous.
Though President Trump’s executive order halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries is a current focus of legal scrutiny, his considerable ability to wage undeclared wars abroad should draw just as much concern.
Much of our current situation stems from the Obama administration’s expansion of the use of poorly authorized military force.
According to the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the executive branch must get congressional approval within 60 days of any time the “United States Armed Forces are introduced into hostilities,” if Congress has made no declared war applicable to military action.
In 2014, the Obama administration cited two laws as justifications for its military actions in Iraq and Syria against Islamic State.
Of the two laws he referenced, the earlier one was the 2001 “Authorization for Use of Military Force” joint resolution. This granted the president the power to command the use of force against all those responsible for carrying out or aiding those who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as a way to prevent future terrorist acts.
The second law, the “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002,” granted the president authority to use the armed forces to defend the national security of the United States “against the continuing threat posed by Iraq,” and to enforce relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
The Obama administration’s use of these laws to justify fighting ISIS, specifically, was a legal stretch. A 2015 Brookings Institute report by Daniel Byman explained that ISIS, though once a subsidiary of al-Qaida (the terrorist organization that carried out the 9/11 attacks) was independent of the latter organization by February 2014.
Almost as troubling legally are the years that passed while the U.S. battled al-Qaida, supposedly in response to 9/11, without authorization.
