Authorizing War Against ISIS, Muslims Murdered, Gay Marriage

Six months after we started bombing ISIS, Congress is debating whether to authorize the administration to attack ISIS. The authorization that President Obama has proposed wouldn’t be as vast as the two that were given under President Bush -- it only lasts for three years and it prohibits ground troops or at least "enduring offensive ground combat operations." S.E. Cupp said "we should have taken action earlier." Bob Scheer believes "this is a bipartisan folly." This week three young Muslim adults in North Carolina -- a dental student at UNC Chapel Hill, his wife and her sister, all under the age of 25, were killed in a possible hate crime. Craig Hicks, their neighbor, was arrested in the shooting. In Alabama, a federal judge threw out the state’s ban on gay marriage as violating the U.S. Constitution. Roy Moore, the chief judge of the Alabama State Supreme Court, issued an order telling probate judges not to issue same-sex marriage licenses, saying the federal court order didn’t apply to them. What’s behind the resistance in Alabama?

Josh Barro (New York Times) moderates from the Center. Robert Scheer (TruthDig.com) is on the Left. S.E. Cupp (New York Daily News) is on the Right.

Banner Image: U.S. President Barack Obama is flanked by Vice President Joe Biden (L), Secretary of State John Kerry (2nd R) and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (R) as he delivers a statement on legislation sent to Congress to authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State, from the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington February 11, 2015. Obama asked Congress on Wednesday to authorize military force against Islamic State that would bar any large-scale invasion by U.S. ground troops and limit operations to three years. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst