When President Obama used a drone strike to kill 150 people in Somalia in 2016, he justified that action under the 2001 A.U.M.F., arguing that the targets were Islamist terrorists, part of the “associated forces” of Al Qaeda against whom Congress had authorized military force.

The problem is that such justifications have become largely pro forma because Congress has not provided itself with a mechanism to reject or limit them or even to regularly debate whether they have been misused.