October 25, 2017

Trump signs executive order to draft retired pilots back into military service

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/20/trump-signs-executive-order-to-draft-retired-pilots-back-into-military-service/
"Citing emergency powers, President Donald Trump signed an executive order late in the day on Friday that would allow retired military pilots to be recalled to active duty. But the broad wording of the executive order seemed to imply that the executive branch would have the power to call up retired military officers and force them back into service for any reason, as the “emergency” Trump used to justify the executive order was extremely vague: “the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.” This executive order is officially an amendment to Executive Order 13223, signed by George W. Bush in September 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Trump’s executive order claimed to be “in furtherance of the objectives of Proclamation 7463… which declared a national emergency by reason of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.” Stay with me, because this gets confusing. So Trump basically wrote an amendment to Bush’s 2001 executive order. All Bush’s executive order really said, though, was that an emergency existed and the president had authorization to use a variety of statutes in the federal code. It then listed those statutes, of which there are many; let’s just say they mostly involve the executive abilities to send the military around the world and limit troops’ ability to retire. In any case, Trump’s executive order specifically invoked two of the sections of the United States Code."