Bush Claims Broad Commander-in-Chief Powers Through AUMF and OLC Memos

President Bush signed the Authorization for Use of Military Force on September 18, 2001, and the administration used it to assert sweeping commander-in-chief authority beyond what Congress authorized. Office of Legal Counsel attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee wrote secret memos authorizing warrantless surveillance of Americans, enhanced interrogation including waterboarding, and indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay without judicial review. The administration argued presidential wartime authority was essentially unlimited and not subject to statutory constraints.