by the Way . . .

The president has the power to veto bills he doesn’t like, but the problem is, the power is not unlimited. Congress might override the veto. And what do you do when you like some parts of a bill, but not others, and you don’t have a line item veto? The solution, of course, is just to pick out the parts you have decided should be unconstitutional and tell the executive branch officials (they are, after all, the only ones with the guns) not to enforce those parts. You do this with a presidential signing statement which you sort of append to a bill when you sign it.

This actually works better than the old fashioned system, because there is nothing for Congress to override, and if they try to restrict signing statements, its unconstitutional (see?). And so far, the Supreme Court, which early on said that the constitution said that the Supreme Court had the final say on what the constitution said (the Marbury bootstrap case), hasn’t really got a handle on the signing statement issue, unless it is a line item veto, which it isn’t. You have to be careful in this area, as you remember what Andrew Jackson said about the Indian-symp court: "they have made their decision, now let them enforce it".

Furthermore, when the Supreme Court declared that they were the “decider”, they didn’t say other branches couldn’t also be the decider, they just can’t be the decider of last resort. In fact, if a majority of the Court agrees, they will defer to Congress, who decided the law was constitutional or they wouldn’t have done it. President Bush is likewise the decider, having issued over 130 signing statements containing more than 750 constitutional challenges. You would think Congress would be a little more careful.

An American Bar Association report has condemned the presidential signing statement as a threat to the separation of powers. You might wonder why there would be any objection to President Bush being a decider if it is OK for Congress and the Court to be deciders. It is really a version of the “safety in numbers theory”. As President Bush said on July 9, 2004, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job”. We are confident that the 535 in Congress and the 9 on the Court feel the same way. The thing is, when God speaks we always feel better if there is more than one witness.