Once again, lawmakers are trying to claw back their responsibility under the Constitution to declare war. On Wednesday, the House passed legislation that would repeal two authorizations for use of military force from 1991 and 2002, prior to both the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars.

The issue of how much power the president has to wage war has become increasingly relevant after President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to destroy a boat in the Caribbean that was believed to be smuggling drugs. When asked later what legal authority the military used to justify the Sept. 2 strike, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters, “Every boatload of any form of drug that poisons the American people is an imminent threat, and at the DoD, our job is to defeat imminent threats.”

Hegseth’s invoki

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