There are several reasons why the Trump administration may wish Congress to pass a new updated version of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), writes Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government Andrew Rudalevige in The Washington Post’s political science blog the Monkey Cage.
In last week’s Monkey Cage, Rudalevige wrote about the current standing of the AUMF, which Congress passed in 2001 in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, granting the US the legal right to pursue those who committed and aided the attacks—namely al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
However, with the terror threat now coming from the so-called Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL—which did not exist in 2001—Rudalevige identifies a number of potential legal challenges when it comes to using AUMF to cover the war against Islamic terrorism. Read more.
