Sen. John McCain is vowing a court battle if President Barack Obama tries to circumvent Congress and close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"Rumors are that he will act again in an unconstitutional manner," McCain, the Arizona chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
told Politico. "I think it's unconstitutional.
"I think we'd have to go to court."
Both sides are preparing for a showdown as the Pentagon prepares to release a report outlining options for closing Guantanamo and transferring its remaining 112 detainees, Politico reports.
President George W. Bush established the prison in 2002 as to house al-Qaida and Taliban members who were arrested by U.S. Special Forces.
Many of the detainees are to be sent to other countries, Politico reports, but the issue remains what to do with those who are considered too dangerous to release, though they don't have the evidence to prosecute them.
The Pentagon's plan is expected to outline several options — and Republicans believe Obama should work through Congress and fear that he will resort to executive action.
"If it has all these different options, it’s not a plan," said McCain, who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. "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."
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