WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday Republicans are taking legal steps to stop President Barack Obama from closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Ryan told reporters that lawmakers have the votes to block Obama’s plan in Congress and enough votes to override any veto. Separately, the Wisconsin Republican said the GOP is “preparing our legal challenge” to ensure the prison remains open and detainees aren’t moved to the U.S.
Earlier this month, House Republicans awarded the Jones Day law firm with a $150,000 contract to perform the legal work in case Obama tries to move Guantanamo detainees to federal prisons.
Under Obama’s plan, roughly 35 of the 91 current prisoners will be transferred to other countries in the coming months, leaving up to 60 detainees who are either facing trial by military commission or have been determined to be too dangerous to release but are not facing charges.
Those detainees would be relocated to a U.S. facility.
Ryan said Obama’s plan flouts a longstanding ban annually passed by Congress that blocks the president from transferring Guantanamo detainees to U.S. soil.
“These detainees cannot come to American soil,” Ryan said.
“If the president proceeds with knowingly breaking the law … he will be met with fierce bipartisan opposition here in Congress and we are taking all legal preparations necessary to meet with that resistance,” Ryan told reporters. “He can’t do it because the law is really clear. I’ll just leave it at that.”
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Leaving the specifics aside, I find it totally amazing, with the number of Republican Lawyers sitting in congress. that they can’t do this on their own. Of course, maybe they’ve come to the realization that they’re just a bunch of ambulance chasers.
There they go… creating jobs.
I knew it! Just the fact that they hired an outside law firm means, and I’m not kidding, they KNOW that although they can stop Obama legislatively, his other path is clear. Here’s why and I think I’m on the right track here. As President, yes the R’s can and have enacted legislation to stop the transfer of prisoners, the closing of the base and more.
But their hiring of outside counsel means to me that they finally and too late recognize that Obama will now pull the “I’m Commander-in-Chief” card. Since Guantanamo is a military base, stocked only with military personnel and captured terrorists from a war zone, Obama can, by executive order, as the C-I-C, do what he wants.
This has close parallels to WWII (and other times) when the sitting President, chiefly FDR, used said C-I-C authority to do some amazing things via executive orders. Heck, he single-handedly shut down Detroit auto makers and tons of other businesses by fiat and ordered them to make war materials. A few executive level protestors to the gov’t takeover went to jail, at least briefly, until they relented and shifted all production over to the war effort.
http://campaigningforhistory.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/stretching-executive-power-in-wartime/?_r=0
One last thing: Obama has played the Washington Republicans like a fine fiddle lately on so, so many topics it’s amazing. China, EPA, Cuba, executive orders themselves, the pipeline and more!
Whatta guy!
Clarify, please. Did the Republican party hire this firm, or is this another bill that the Republicans are sticking to the American taxpayers?
Now imagine if the President proposed transferring them to private prisons.
In red states.
It would pass overwhelmingly.
In record time.
With Ryan leading the charge.