Word: vetoes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fundamental tenet of the U.S. democratic system. But it has not always worked out so neatly in the rough-and-tumble of Washington politics. During the past 50 years, the theoretically crisp lines of authority have become more blurred, due largely to a device called a "legislative veto." Under this controversial maneuver, Congress drafts a statute broadly but incorporates a provision calling for review of the Executive Branch's implementation of the law. The provision permits one or both houses of Congress-or even a single committee-to block any actions with which they disagree. Since...
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court bounced that congressional blank check. In a sweeping decision, the court declared the legislative veto to be an unconstitutional usurpation of power by Congress. Apparently any exercise of the legislative veto amounts to a new piece of legislation, said Chief Justice Warren Burger in a lucid, 39-page majority opinion; Article I of the Constitution dictates that "every Order, Resolution or Vote"-any legislative act-by Congress is subject to the President's approval. "It is obviously easier for action to be taken by one House without submission to the President," Burger wrote...
...ruling in decades. Associate Justice Byron White, who entered an acerbic, almost bitter dissent, acknowledged the decision's "surpassing importance." But he described the majority opinion as "irresponsible" and of "destructive scope." Even Associate Justice Lewis Powell, who agreed with the majority that in this case the legislative veto was unconstitutional, complained that "the breadth of this holding gives one pause...
Indeed, the breadth, and not the ruling itself, was what surprised most observers, especially given the quirky particulars of the case being litigated. The court was ruling on the deportation case of a student from Kenya. In 1975 the House of Representatives had used its legislative veto to reverse a Justice Department ruling that the student, Jagdish Chadha, could stay in the U.S. An appellate court overruled Congress in 1980 and the Supreme Court affirmed that decision last week...
While the decision augurs a new era in relations between the White House and Capitol Hill, there were predictions that it will take years to sort out its myriad implications and bring Congress into full compliance. At least 110 laws are still on the books containing legislative veto provisions, and they cover the gamut of Executive Branch functions. Procedural questions also remain unresolved. Most important is the issue of "severability": Which of the affected laws can be cleansed of their unconstitutional veto clauses, as the court last week ruled was permitted in the immigration law, and which laws must...