The 2001 Authorization To Use Military Force Provided Congressional Approval For President Trump's Decision To Destroy Iran's Nuclear Facilities

Passed after the 9/11 Attack, it authorized use of force against any nations who sponsored terrorism if in the national interest of the United States to do so.

Following the attack on the World Trade Towers in 2001, Congress passed and President Bush signed the following Congressional Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF):

The 2001 AUMF specifically authorized the use of force against “nations” who aided the 9/11 attacks “IN ORDER TO PREVENT ANY FUTURE ACTS of international terrorism against the United States by such nations…”

The “Whereas” clauses specifically reference the President having the authority from Congress under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States.

It is no great chore to string together a line of culpable actors — individuals, organizations, and states — who played a role in the 9/11 attack that includes Iran and the IRGC. While the language of the AUMF refers to the planning, authorizing, committing, and aiding the attacks themselves, the language actually goes further — it covers nations that “harbored … organizations or persons.” Such language is not focused only on past activities. It contemplated actions taken on behalf of those organizations and persons in the future.

That places all such individuals, organization, and nations at risk for the use of military force “to prevent any future acts…” — again, it is forward-looking.

Iran’s belligerence and overt hostile acts directed at the United States is a matter of historical record stretching back 46 years, beginning with the takeover the U.S. Embassy — sovereign U.S. territory under international law — and stretching through various terrorist proxy attacks and even direct Iranian military strikes at U.S. interests and personnel around the world.

My good friend Marina Medvin assembled a catalogue of just some of those acts during that period:

That placed Iran, as a nation, within the coverage of the 2001 AUMF.

Iran has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of U.S. military personnel, and destruction of US property around the world through its own proxies as well as the military aid and training it has given to belligerent forces engaged in wartime hostilities with the United States.

Iran’s continued development of materials for a nuclear weapon, as well as a delivery capacity that could hit the United States, make it a valid target pursuant to the authorization to prevent future terrorist attacks on the United States by Iran. The justification continues today, tomorrow, and every day thereafter until the Iranian military forces are no longer a threat to our national interest as contemplated by Congress and reflected in the AUMF.

Pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, Congress has the express and exclusive power to “declare war.” Because that is true, there is no judicial review with respect to the format or content of any such declaration — Congress is the sole authority on what form the declaration may take, and what content is warranted under the circumstances of the conflict.

Congress passed the AUMF in 2001, it was signed by President Bush, and it has never been rescinded. It remains good law today, and President Trump had all the authority he needed to conduct yesterday’s airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facility pursuant to its terms.