Assessing the Power-Grab: ABA Creates Task Force to Investigate Bush

Presidents have often made use of signing statements when signing bills into law. They’re employed when the President wants to sign the bill but disagrees with selected portions of it. In these statements, the President typically reserves the right to interpret the law as he sees fit, cherry-picking those clauses that coincide with his governmental vision. The signing statement is intended as a way for presidents to “push back” when Congress oversteps its authority, but there’s no law on the books that expressly permits its use (nor is there any law prohibiting it).

While plenty of presidents have used signing statements in the past, they’ve traditionally used them with more discretion and restraint. With Dubya, it seems like an absolute free-for-all. For example, George H.W. Bush used 232 signing statements during four years in office while Clinton used 140 over eight years. In contrast, George W. Bush has issued over 500 signing statements containing at least 750 challenges to laws passed by Congress (including the ban on torture, “whistle-blower” protections for federal employees, and oversight provisions in the Patriot Act)… and he ain’t even done dancin’ yet.

The ABA – whose self-proclaimed mission is “to be the national representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional excellence and respect for the law” – has grown more and more concerned that, with George W. Bush, the use of signing statements has become a way to abuse Executive power, rather than a way to preserve the constitutionally-granted powers of the presidential office. At stake, as ABA officials see it, is the delicate balance of power between Congress and the White House upon which our system of federal government is built. Ultimately, their Task Force will evaluate whether signing statements (and measures like them) should be prohibited.

As the Bush White House is one fiercely protective of its power and the approach it uses to get things done, we expect this to turn into an old-fashioned mudfight pretty quickly. Though the ABA Task Force has yet to give a deadline for the publishing of its findings, something tells us we’ll hear from them again before the elections take place this coming November.

*Image from White House website.