Presidential signing statement disputes provisions of National Defense Authorization Act.

• Author: Crook, John R.

In early January 2013, President Barack Obama approved H.R. 4310, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013; earlier versions of the legislation included provisions that drew a White House veto threat. (1) The president issued a signing statement questioning the constitutionality of provisions limiting transfers of detainees from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at Parwan Prison in Afghanistan and examining other provisions affecting military and foreign affairs. (2) An excerpt follows:

Today I have signed into law H.R. 4310, the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013." I have approved this annual defense authorization legislation, as I have in previous years, because it authorizes essential support for service members and their families, renews vital national security programs, and helps ensure that the United States will continue to have the strongest military in the world. Even though I support the vast majority of the provisions contained in this Act, which is comprised of hundreds of sections spanning more than 680 pages of text, I do not agree with them all. Our Constitution does not afford the President the opportunity to approve or reject statutory sections one by one. I am empowered either to sign the bill, or reject it, as a whole. In this case, though I continue to oppose certain sections of the Act, the need to renew critical defense authorities and funding was too great to ignore. Several provisions in the bill ... raise constitutional concerns. Section 1025 places limits on the military's authority to transfer third country nationals currently held at the detention facility in Parwan, Afghanistan. That facility is located within the territory of a foreign sovereign in the midst of an armed conflict. Decisions regarding the disposition of detainees captured on foreign battlefields have traditionally been based upon the judgment of experienced military commanders and national security professionals without unwarranted interference by Members of Congress. Section 1025 threatens to upend that tradition, and could interfere with my ability as Commander in Chief to make time-sensitive determinations about the appropriate disposition of detainees in an active area of hostilities. Under certain circumstances, the section could violate constitutional separation of powers principles. If section 1025 operates in a manner that violates constitutional separation of powers...