Eviscerating the Law Bush's Misuse of Signing Statements

Summary

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This president has made it clear that his signing a law passed by Congress does not necessarily mean that he will enforce it. In the unprecedented number of "signing statements" he has attached to new statutes before sending them to the Federal Register, President Bush dismisses those laws he believes erode his ever-expanding view of his powers.

This particular expansion of presidential powers overriding the intent and powers of Congress is, says the American Bar Association, "of great consequence to our constitutional system of government and its delicate system of checks and balances and separation of powers." Agreeing, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has held a hearing on "signing statements." The ABA decided to call public attention to these unilateral disruptions of our rule of law because of the extraordinarily diligent research on Mr. Bush's signing statements by one reporter, Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe evidence that a lone journalist can rise above the quicksand of the 24-hour news cycle and make a significant difference.

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Eviscerating the Law Bush's Misuse of Signing Statements

In one of his probes, Mr. Savage revealed that Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington, are Mr. Bush's chief architects for these wholesale expansions of...

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