Did the President Have the Domestic Legal Authority to Kill Qassem Soleimani? – Lawfare
Even by this deferential metric, however, the Soleimani strike raises serious questions. While we don t know the exact domestic legal argument that the Trump administration is relying on, the decision to kill Soleimani pushes against certain aspects of how the president s authority to use military force both constitutional and statutory have been construed in the past. This does not mean that these arguments were legally unavailable to the Trump administration or that its actions were unlawful. But it does mean that these actions legitimacy may be more vulnerable to criticism, which may in turn encourage new efforts to check his authority through the legislative and political processes.