By Lisa Ebersole
This week, Obama Administration officials revealed that the President is considering using his executive power to close Guantanamo. Congress has attempted to preemptively block such action by including a provision in the military spending bill that forbids the transfer of any of Guantanamo’s prisoners back to the United States. However, Obama could circumvent Congress by vetoing the military spending bill or by signing the law into effect, but including a signing statement saying that the prohibition against transferring Guantanamo inmates violates his powers as Commander-in-Chief, signaling that he does not intend to comply with that aspect of the law. This news has summoned an ironic accusation from John Boehner: that the President would be “thumb[ing] his nose at the American people and the Constitution” by bringing the inmates to prisons in the United States. [Read more…] about Closing Guantanamo (For Real This Time)