President Biden has previously registered his support for appealing the authorizations, arguing that they are outdated.
The administration has also strayed from previous administrations’ tendency to lean on the 2002 AUMF for engagements in the region, citing Article II of the Constitution for airstrikes on Iranian-backed militia fighters in Iraq and Syria in February and June.
Then-President Obama cited the authorization in 2014 as legal authority to send troops back in the theater to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In 2020, President Trump cited the 2002 authorization as the legal basis for carrying out the drone strike that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani while he was in Iraq.