President’s Signing Statement Objects to Detention Provisions in Defense Legislation

2012 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Crook
Keyword(s):  
Signing Statement

scholarly journals The Unitary, or Unilateral Executive? Presidential Power in the Bush Administration

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 181-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Reagan Administration ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Bush Administration ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
Signing Statement

The Bush administration came to office in 2001 determined to return powers to the president lost largely as a result of Watergate. Key to returning those powers is the unitary executive theory of presidential power—a constitutional theory of power developed by conservatives in the Reagan administration meant to offer the president offensive and defensive opportunities when working with an external environment that is polarized and hostile towards the executive branch. While the theory has been a part of each administration from Reagan through Bush II, it is the Bush II administration that has received the majority of the attention for its aggressive defense of a number of controversial actions by relying on the theory. Among those actions has been the use (or abuse) of the presidential bill signing statement. It is my purpose to argue that the administration has not behaved as a Unitarian but as something else entirely, leaving the powers of the office perhaps in worse shape than they found it.

scholarly journals Presidential Signing Statements and the Rule of Law as an “Unstructured Institution"

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Shane
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Signing Statements ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
The Government ◽  
Signing Statement

The George W. Bush administration's use of signing statements embodied a disturbingly thin and formalist view of the rule of law that goes hand-in-hand with its vision of the separation of powers. Its signing statement practice was notable both for the extremity of the constitutional vision that these statements typically asserted—especially with regard to the so-called "unitary executive”—and with regard to their sheer volume, unmatched in the entire history of the executive. To understand the latter phenomenon, the Bush signing statements need to be understood not just as an expression of a constitutional philosophy, but also as an effort to institutionalize through faux law a highly presidential ethos as a fundamental element of the spirit with which the government conducts business.

The Law: Contextualizing the Signing Statement

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER S. KELLEY
Keyword(s):  
The Law ◽  
Signing Statement
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