Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said that lawmakers will likely have to go to court with the Obama administration if the president uses executive action in his attempt to close the military prison at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
"Rumors are that he will act again in an unconstitutional manner," McCain, a former prisoner of war, told Politico in an interview. "I think it’s unconstitutional. I think we’d have to go to court."
While McCain has long been for the need to shutter the Guantanamo Bay prison, he and several Republican lawmakers have argued that Obama using executive action to accomplish it without Congress would be unconstitutional. White House press secretary Josh Earnest last week refused to rule out the possibility of Obama using executive action to close the detention facility, which would involve transferring several detainees to the United States and some to other countries.
Later, Earnest warned congressional lawmakers not to stand in Obama’s way as he tries to close the prison, which he promised to do when he took office in 2009.
McCain’s remarks come just as the Pentagon prepares to send a plan to Congress laying out how it would close the Guantanamo Bay prison. The plan, which is expected to be unveiled this week, will list stateside prisons where dozens of detainees deemed too dangerous to release could be transferred. The Pentagon has reviewed prisons in Colorado, Kansas, and South Carolina to assess their viability.
"If it has all these different options, it’s not a plan," McCain stated. "It’s passing the buck over to the Congress of the United States, knowing full well without a specific plan that it doesn’t have any chance--maybe laying the groundwork for what the president did on immigration, which is the executive order."
On Tuesday, the Senate passed two bills that would prevent Obama from moving any prisoners held on terrorism charges at the Guantanamo Bay prison to the U.S.