The key question in weighing repeal is not what the 2002 Iraq AUMF doesauthorize, but what it couldauthorize. In the eyes of the executive branch, 20 years of interbranch practice has put an enabling gloss on the 2002 AUMF’s broad language that makes it a potential vehicle for military activity of nearly any type or scale so long as there is some nexus to Iraq. Such carte blanche authorization should be of deep concern to Congress, particularly when tied to a country that has a complex relationship with one of the United States’ most contentious rivals, Iran. And while there may be good reasons to question the validity of this interpretation, there are few signs that the federal courts or any other institution is willing and able to restrain a future president from relying on them, unless and until Congress itself acts.
For better or worse, the executive branch’s understanding of what the 2002 Iraq AUMF may be used for in the future is intimately tied up with the ways in which it has been used in the past—and how Congress has interacted with that history. For that reason, this article begins with a brief history that tracks the 2002 Iraq AUMF from its origins focusing on regime change in Iraq through its most recent use by the Trump administration and how the Biden administration has conceived of it since.
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/how-2002-iraq-aumf-got-be-so-dangerous-part-1-history-and-practice
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