Signing statement
by Prairie Weather
The New York Times reports that Obama may use presidential signing statement to get around Republican restrictions on the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners. McClatchy makes it sound more like a done deal.
Obama administration officials say they plan to reject Congressional efforts to limit the president’s options on Guantanamo, setting the stage for a confrontation between the president and the new Congress on an issue that has been politically divisive since Inauguration Day.
The Guantanamo provisions, which include limits on where and how prisoners can be tried, were attached to a spending bill for military pay and benefits approved by Congress late last year. White House aides are recommending that President Obama sign the spending bill and then issue a “signing statement” challenging at least some of the Guantanamo provisions as intrusions on his constitutional authority.
The statement, officials said, would likely be released along with a new executive order that outlined review procedures for some — but not all — of the 174 Guantanamo prisoners still held without charge or trial. ...McClatchy
Charlie Savage reports at the Times that “it could represent a more aggressive use of unilateral executive powers than what he exerted in his first two years in office.”
He could act on the measure by the end of the week.
One provision bars the military from using its funds to transfer detainees to the United States, making it harder to prosecute them in federal court. Another prohibits the transfer of detainees to any other country unless the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, certifies that the country has met a strict set of security conditions. …
The provision is part of a larger Defense spending bill.
…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.
This is cross posted from the blog Prairie Weather.