On September 18, 2001, Congress authorized the president to “use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 . . . "

The Bush administration argued that this was a new type of war where the battlefield was everywhere and the Geneva Conventions, which had governed the laws of war, did not apply. So-called “unlawful enemy combatants” were rounded up in Afghanistan and Iraq, and elsewhere.

The Bush Administration held that under conditions of war, such as those that apply in the "war on terror," the President has wide-ranging powers that are not checked by Congress or the Supreme Court.