Obama Looks to Bypass Restrictions on Gitmo Transfers With Executive Powers
- Posted on January 4, 2011 at 3:53pm by
Meredith Jessup
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Last month, the Democratically controlled Congress voted to place new restrictions on the transfer of detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. But now, Barack Obama‘s legal advisors are debating whether the president should move forward with plans to prosecute the prisoners in civil courts by issuing a signing statement asserting that his executive powers allow him to bypass Congress’ restrictions, the New York Times reports.
If the president issues such a statement, it would represent a “more aggressive use of unilateral executive powers than what he exerted in his first two years in office,” the Times notes.
The Congress-approved restrictions include barring the military from using its appropriated funds to pay for detainee transfers to the United States, making it harder for the Obama administration to carry out civil trials and, ultimately, close the detention facility.
According to the Times, Obama could act on the measure by the end of the week.
The deliberations over whether Mr. Obama should challenge those provisions were reported Monday by ProPublica, an investigative journalism site, and were confirmed by several officials familiar with the discussions.
Before the vote on the bill last month, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told Congress that the restrictions would be “an extreme and risky encroachment on the authority of the executive branch.” But lawmakers included them in the final legislation anyway, and Mr. Obama is considered unlikely to veto the measure because it authorizes billions of dollars for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
One option on the table, according to officials familiar with the deliberations, is for Mr. Obama to sign the bill into law but declare his opposition to the detainee transfer restrictions — which expire Sept. 30, at the end of the current fiscal year — by simply arguing that they are bad policy.
But the administration is also considering whether he should go further by issuing a signing statement — a formal document recording a president’s interpretation of a new law for the rest of the executive branch to follow — asserting that he has the constitutional power to disregard the restrictions.
Under the latter approach, the president would assert that as the head of the executive branch and commander in chief, his prosecutorial discretion and wartime powers would allow him to lawfully bring detainees into the United States for trial or to transfer them to other countries as he sees fit.
Obama’s predecessor, former President George W. Bush, also used such signing statements during his tenure in office. In 2002, the Bush administration declared that Congress has no power to limit the transfer of detainees because “the president has plenary constitutional authority, as commander in chief, to transfer such individuals who are captured and held outside the United States to the control of another country.”
Though the memorandum was later rescinded, then-Sen. Obama publicly criticized the Bush administration for extending executive power beyond its constitutional limits.
Other opponents to such actions — including the American Bar Association — have argued that president should veto any legislation they view as flawed rather than issuing signing statements which blur the constitutionally mandated separation of powers.
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hickoryrat
Posted on January 7, 2011 at 12:52amTime for another tea party.Oh s&$% we tried that.
Report Post »Whats next?
wash1776
Posted on January 6, 2011 at 1:07amObama seeks to bypass anything he can that doesn’t suit him. He has absolutely no respect for the constitution or the rule of law unless it is one he made. POOREST EXCUSE FOR A PRESIDENT I HAVE EVER SEEN!
Report Post »JOHNNYROTEN
Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:19pmthe black bastard son needs TO BE IN GITMO !!!!!! you can see his family tree if you look down a outhouse……….abandoned by a whore of a mum and a drunkerd dad, pawned off on grandparents, he is the true black bastard
Report Post »Doc_Slammin
Posted on January 5, 2011 at 5:39pmThis is the fallacy of politics today; insistence on progressing a Party line agenda at any cost, not considering – even for a second, that the very policies that are misused can be used against them by the opposing Party in the future.
However, in this case, I would like to see this President proceed, if for no other reason, to drive home the points that he is wrong and he should not be misusing the power of his office. Maybe it will put end to this idiocy once and for all.
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on January 5, 2011 at 3:46pmThis arrogant excuse for a man thinks he can dictate any law, any order, he deems necessary for his own agenda. More & more people are waking up. It is time for investigations into this administration… a deep investigation & perhaps impeachment. But who do we trust to do an honest check? I can honestly think of no one.
Report Post »mikem1969
Posted on January 5, 2011 at 11:18amthe dictator and chief strikes again. time to impeach this anti-american piece of crap.
Report Post »Spawnomite
Posted on January 5, 2011 at 10:07amObama wants Obama gets.
All Americans who voted for this (insert word) need to be marked for all to see.
Report Post »EP46
Posted on January 5, 2011 at 7:39amI do not believe that any decision made back in 2002 can be used informatively today. We have seen what happens when prisoners are released from Gitmo. We have actions now to base decisions upon. If obama does choose this route, then all funding for moving the prisoners or using civilian courts to try them must be be denied by the Congress. We understand your reasons barry, you call WE THE PEOPLE enemies, but you want to release not only the prisoners at Gitmo, you want to find a way to release people here at home who are in prison.
Report Post »Someone please tell me one thing that obama has done to protect America or the legal citizens of our Nation.
pamela kay
Posted on January 5, 2011 at 1:48amHe has no intentions to listen to the voice of the American people. If he chooses to follow that path of distruction he will loose even some of his loyal followers .More and more Americans are seeing him for what he really is. Maybe this will wake up those who have chosen to ignore the facts for the past two years.I have been hoping that he might screw up enough to shake things up and maybe this will do it. Every day something new and shocking emerges from this man and his administration. It is a matter of time before (as my dad used to say) “he’ll cut off his nose to spite his face.” Keep it up mr. president you will surely help us open the eyes of those who sleep.
Report Post »BoilitDown
Posted on January 5, 2011 at 1:07amThese are not the actions of a president who has heard or understands what the voters have demanded of him in the last election. He has absolutely no intention of bipartisanship or moving to the center and this is the proof. Rule by decree has no place in our nation. This, alone, demands our strongest response, in no uncertain terms. Makes some call, write some letters and pound on their doors to stop this wannabe despot.
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