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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) thinks the White House is pushing increasingly ridiculous legal arguments in the fight against the Islamic State group (also known as ISIS).

In order to justify its airstrikes against the Islamic State jihadists, President Barack Obama's administrationhas cited authorizations for military force that date back to 2001 and 2002.

Paul, a likely presidential candidate in 2016, called that argument "absurd" four times in a Wednesday interview on Fox News. He noted the Islamic State didn't even exist in its current form at the time of the two authorizations.

"Both of those I'd say would be absurd contentions. Basically, in 2001 we voted for an authorization that said the people who attacked us on 9/11, that we would go after them. Well, this [ISIS] group wasn't in existence then, and this group isn't even allied with Al Qaeda. This group is at odds with Al Qaeda. So I think it's absurd," Paul told hostGreta Van Susteren. "It's absurd to try and say a linkage to a war started 15 years ago."

Earlier in the week, Paulunveiledwhat he views as a solution to the White House's legal problem: a formal declaration of war in Congress. His office said he plans to introduce it in December when the Senate returns to session.

In his Fox News interview, Paul further said when he confronted Secretary of State John Kerry over the US' legal argument for its military strikes against the Islamic State, Kerry gave him another questionable justification: the inherent powers of the presidency defined by Article 2 of the Constitution.

"The president absolutely, clearly, by almost any legal standard that I can imagine, is not violating the Constitution; he's upholding it. Article 2 gives the president the power to do what he's doing," Kerry told Paul in a congressional committee hearing in September. "The president has the right, as the president under Article 2, to defend this nation."

Paul was unimpressed with Kerry's position, which he characterized as giving Obama "unlimited power to go to war."

"He said which I think is absurd he said, 'Well if [the 2001 authorization] doesn't do it, then the president has Article 2 authority to do whatever he wants. I disagree with that. And I think most constitutional scholars do. And I think most of the people in the American public do not think the president has unlimited power to go to war," Paul recalled on Fox.

View the Fox News segment below.

Original post:
Rand Paul Slams Obama's 'Absurd' Legal Argument For ISIS Fight

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By Jeremy Diamond, CNN

updated 10:34 AM EST, Mon November 24, 2014

Washington (CNN) -- Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wants Congress to formally declare war for the first time since World War II.

Paul, who is expected to launch a 2016 presidential bid, plans to introduce a resolution when Congress returns in December to declare war against ISIS, also known as the Islamic State. The resolution would also end the 2002 authorization that led to the Iraq war and set an expiration date for the 2001 measure that gives the President the authority to go after al Qaeda terrorists, the two measures the Obama administration has used as backing for the U.S. bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria against ISIS.

The U.S. contends that ISIS is an offshoot of al Qaeda.

Paul's resolution is just one of several circulating on Capitol Hill that would give Obama specific authority to combat ISIS, though Paul's is reportedly the only one that would formally declare war.

The Kentucky Republican's resolution would also pin the war to a one-year timeframe, requiring the President to come back to Congress within a year to get the authority to pursue a U.S. campaign against ISIS.

Paul's call to action comes just two weeks after he called the U.S.'s war against ISIS "illegal," writing in a Daily Beast Op-ed that "it must be declared and made valid, or it must be ended."

Obama said three weeks ago that he would seek the backing of Congress to continue waging war against ISIS, while asserting that he does have the legal authority to continue the U.S. military effort against ISIS.

Paul has sought to shed the perception that he is an isolationist, and the resolution also reinforces his profile as a firm backer of the need to rein in presidential authority.

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Rand Paul urges Congress to declare war on ISIS - CNN.com