Investigating Reports,

President Bush is "Undermining Rule of Law" By Ignoring Laws Passed by Congress

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The largest lawyers group in the country has warned that President Bush is undermining the Constitution by claiming he has the authority to ignore laws passed by Congress.

A new report (PDF) by the American Bar Association criticizes the president’s unprecedented use of what’s known as signing statements through which he claims a right to ignore or not enforce sections of bills that he signs into law.

The report declares: "The Constitution is not what the President says it is.”

Since Bush took office, he has issued over 800 signing statements – more than all other presidents combined.

The ABA’s report was written by a bipartisan task force that including several well known conservatives former FBI Director William Sessions (who served under President Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush), former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards and Bruce Fein who served in the Reagan and Bush administration.

• Michael Greco, President of the American Bar Association.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Greco is the President of the American Bar Association. He joins us from our studio in Washington D.C. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Michael Greco.

MICHAEL GRECO: Good morning.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, why don't you talk about your findings?

MICHAEL GRECO: The American Bar Association has a task force looking at the presidential signing statements practice. We released the report two days ago here in Washington. The major finding of the task force is that a president's use of signing statements to ignore enforcement of laws is violating the Constitution. The report also found that the system of checks and balances, in which the three branches of government have powers clearly delineated, but clearly limited, are being harmed by the practice of the President in denying Congress its proper role in the process of government.

AMY GOODMAN: Michael Greco, for non-lawyers, can you explain exactly what these signing statements are and why suddenly the President is using them hundreds of times? How does the process actually work? He sits down and signs a bill, and then what?

MICHAEL GRECO: Under the Constitution, Congress enacts a law, sends it to the President. The President has two choices under the Constitution: either approve that law in toto, without picking and choosing which portions he's going to enforce, or he vetoes it. Those are the only two choices. Now comes something called a presidential signing statement that presidents had used before President Bush, but before President Bush, all presidents combined had only issued 600 signing statements. President Bush in the last five-and-a-half years has issued more than 800 of them.

What a presidential signing statement is is a little statement that the President attaches to a bill when he signs it, and the President, in a sense, in essence, is saying in that little statement, “I find some fault or some problem with this law, and I don't intend to enforce a part of it or all of it, because I think it's either unconstitutional or it interferes with my powers.”

That little statement has taken on a new life in the last 25 years. Before President Reagan, that statement was mostly ceremonial. Only a handful of times did a president indicate in that statement that he intended not to enforce a law. Since 1980, we have hundreds of them. And in most of those hundreds, 800 of them belong to President Bush.

Let me make one thing clear: we are not singling out President Bush. This practice of signing statements precedes him, but the frequency and the purpose to which this president and future presidents might make of the signing statement is what is of concern to the American Bar Association, because it is harming the separation of powers and checks and balances system that has seen us through for the last two centuries in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain how he could use it.

MICHAEL GRECO: Well, the signing statement is -- as I said, he indicates that he's not going to enforce a portion of a law. Let me give you an example. The country was so ashamed when we learned that our military personnel were torturing prisoners, Senator John McCain pressed for a law. The White House tried to dissuade Senator McCain from pressing that law. When Congress said essentially, “We are going to enact this law,” the President commended Congress for enacting that law, but when he signed that law, he attached a statement to it saying that if he determines that enforcement of that law would interfere with his duties as president and authority as president, he will ignore it.

So that's the effect of signing statements as recent presidents have used them. And they are corrosive. They are damaging to our system of government. And that's why this bipartisan ABA task force, as you said at the top, comprised of some very distinguished and respected conservatives, as well as liberals, Republicans and Democrats, came out with a unanimous report, finding the practice of a president using these signing statements to violate the Constitution of the United States.