Welcome back, Constitutional law fans. Today’s lesson is about the Presentment Clause:
“… If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law. “
– U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 7
So, what did President Bush do this time? He claimed to have exercised a pocket veto while Congress is in session. Bush thinks he has killed H.R. 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The bill had been previously passed by a veto-proof majority in both the House and the Senate.
Hey, wait a minute: “Congress vigorously rejects any claim that the president has the authority to pocket-veto this legislation, and will treat any bill returned to the Congress as open to an override vote,” said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
You see, Congress hasn’t adjourned. The Senate remains in pro forma session and the Clerk of the House has been instructed to receive any messages from the President during the recess. Thus, the veto is subject to an override vote.
Talking Points Memo has a nice discussion of the validity (or lack thereof) of Bush’s veto claim. Here’s what one commenter wrote:
A new Congress is convened every time regular elections are held and new members sworn in. Thus, we are in the 110th Congress and in January 2009, we will enter the 111th Congress. In order for a Congress to end, it must adjourn sine die. To do so, both chambers must pass a joint resolution agreeing to the date of adjournment. It takes the agreement of BOTH chambers to adjourn sine die. Recessing is related, parliamentary procedurally-speaking, to adjournment. The most logical conclusion is that Congress cannot recess unless BOTH chambers agree to do so and, until such time as they do, “Congress” as a unit remains in session. The drafters probably really only intended the pocket veto to apply to laws passed at the very end of a Congress so that the brand new Congress with new members would have to start over. Once the Congress adjourns sine die, there simply isn’t any body competent to consider an override.
UPDATE: Supporting the troops? Based on the Bush administration’s claim that the 2008 Defense Authorization Act has been vetoed, the Army has halted bonus payments for more than 20 enlistment, re-enlistment and service extension programs.
#1 by The Rooster on January 3, 2008 - 12:59 pm
It is after all just a god damned piece of paper, and requires elected leaders with a spine to enforce it.
If this is what we are to get with the dems elected, we can only imagine their own weak brand of tyranny, soon to be eclipsed with another republican takeover… or simple crypto fascist corporate co-option. Won’t take much if the like of bush can mangle the Constitution without any resistance from elected officials… and of course, if they, democrats, manage to win at all.
Reps worse than dems? Hmm. Then again the last century is full of examples of pure horror instituted in the progressive name of moving man into the future through collective progressive effort, stalin, mao, hitler, tito, ceaucescu,pol pot, idi amin… name the communist/socialist, and we can review each horror together. Just because our own psychos have better tailors doesn’t make them really any different. Think about albright, in the right time period she could have easy been a goebbels.
Screw godwin, are the People so weak minded as to not review? Kicking and screaming whatever, take a look, at the ghost of Christless Past.
What is truly terrifying is that all our current popular candidates left and right are tripping over themselves to out christian the others.
#2 by Sam Adams on January 3, 2008 - 1:17 pm
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
#3 by glenn on January 3, 2008 - 1:39 pm
It is after all just a piece of paper, and requires elected leaders with a spine to make it enforceable. With every infraction allowed, the gravitas of the democrat party declines.
What are we to expect with a democrat leadership? The worst of it would be weakness to the concept of turning our sovereignty to international treaties, to have the world enjoin us in their own plans to weaken this Republic. I say, have we not seen enough of this countrys’ stature sag and slump? Do we need the rest of the world to maintain what it is that this Nation was meant to be?
Between clinton we see the outsourcing of our jobs, nafta, all a bi-partisan effort. With bush, the ugly face of american imperialism for all to see. Those that rule us are those that promote and finance this destruction of ourselves, and yes, despite whatever party they claim, they are of the same ilk. Each the other half of the bait and switch.
Devvy knows as do millions of Americans what is going on. They all, are not going away
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd333.htm
#4 by Frank Staheli on January 3, 2008 - 2:19 pm
If Congress is still in session, and Bush hasn’t sent it back, and it’s been the requisite 10 days, it’s law. Bush can’t be that stupid. It must be something else…
#5 by rmwarnick on January 3, 2008 - 2:36 pm
IMHO Bush is deliberately violating the Constitution by exercising a so-called “absolute veto power” that is not granted to the President. Congress will probably either hold an override vote (mostly likely enough GOP votes will switch so that Bush’s veto stands) or they can let Bush get away with this by not voting on it (creating a precedent for future vetoes).
Congress might not dare to do what they really ought to– pass a different bipartisan defense bill giving Bush what he wants, and then take the alleged pocket veto of H.R. 1585 to court– ensuring a Supreme Court ruling declaring the “veto” unconstitutional. Then impeach!
#6 by glenn on January 3, 2008 - 2:56 pm
The dems will do nothing in an ominous hope that if and when they win the Presidency, they too can act like bush and defy the Constitution, and make up laws as they go along.
It’s beautiful, and now, and so obvious…,
“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
I’m crying”…
bush is the walrus….goo goo g’joob.
Congressmen have universal health care…..we don’t.
Congressmen have guaranteed pensions….we don’t.
Congressmen have wages tied to inflation…we don’t.
Congressmen can vote to increase their salaries…we don’t.
Congressmen can go from office to corporate overnight…we don’t.
Congressmen can have overseas payola sent to numbered swiss bank accounts…we don’t.
It helps when you work for the entities that print the money.
Vote for Ron Paul, the man with the mop.That way the theft will be more obvious. Ready for an electoral college, “erection”?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The candidate “elected” will have these “qualities”:
a) continue the Iraq war indefinitely, and maybe start another.
b) will protect medical insurers at all costs. No single payer, period.
c) will reduce already paid for social transfer payments. Read SSI. The “lock box”, remember that fantasy?
d) increase spending on public education to no result, apart from even dumber kids coming out of the public systems’ schools.
e) maintain an “open border” policy to continue the ongoing slavery and working wage suppression.
f) continue to sign or attempt to sign international agreements that rob the US of her Sovereignty.
e) attempt to remove or alter the 2nd amendment.
Ever as it has been, and shall be in the future, it will be up to the States to destroy this visible abject failure of national and foreign policies.
We have our work cut out for us, but we will prevail.
Consider what happens if we do not.