Presidential Signing Statements

A blue ribbon American Bar Association task task force on presidential signing statements released a report on July 24, 2006.  You can read a news release here or more from the American Bar Association here.

Read the American Bar Association's Task Force Report with Recommendations.

Presidents can add signing statements to a law passed by Congress.  They may do this (1) to explain to the public what the likely effects of the law may be, or (2) to indicate to the Executive Branch how to interpret an enactment or (3) to inform Congress and the public that the Executive Branch thinks that a certain provision of the law may be unconstitutional in certain applications.  It is this third view that is controversial.  Presidential signing statements of George Bush covering from 2001-2006 have been collected on a temporary website.  You can access them, at least for a while, at the links below:
Annotate Text of the Signing Statements
Unannotated Text of the Signing Statements
Index to the Signing Statements

Posted by Jon Lutz