Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-27
Word "Adiournment" Used in
Constitution Is Made Basis
of Decision.
ACTION is EFFECTIVE
AT END OF ANY SESSION
Method of Killing Legislation in
Closing Days of Congress
Is Upheld.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Pocket vetoes by the President were
declared by the Supreme Court today
to be effective in killing legislation sent
to him in the closing days of session
even though it was not the last session
of a Congress.
The court held the word adjourn
ment used in the Constitution meant
the end of any session of Congress, and
was not confined to final adjournment
of Congress.
The decision covers the Muscle Shoals
bill, pocket vetoed at the close of the
first session of the last Congress.
The opinion was summarized by JUS
tice Sanford as holding in this case
that the adjournment of the first ses-
sion had prevented the President within
the meaning of the Constitution to re-
turn the bill within ten days and that
the bill failed to become law.
The court declared that Congress had
for years acquiesced in the construction
given by the President to the meaning
of the Constitution on the subject, and
asserted Congress could not by law
authorize an employe to act in receiving
bill after its ADJOURNMENT.
The house judiciary committee took
the view that the word adjournment
related only to final adjournment and
not to adjournment between sessions.
On June "a, 1926, bill authorizing
the Colville and other tribes of Indians
in the State of Washington to file suit
in the Court of Claims to determine
whether they were entitled to COM
pensation for lands which they alleged
had been taken by the Government
was sent to President Coolidge. He die
not sign it or return it to Congress, but
pocket vetoed it.
Indians Begin Suit.
The Indians began suit on the theory
that the bill had become law without
the Presidents signature, but the Court
of Claims, contrary to the opinion held
by Senator Norris of Nebraska and
other friends of the Muscle Shoals Gov
ernment operation legislation, which
suffered a similar fate, dismissed the
case on the ground that the bill had
not become law.
Word Adjour nment was Issue.
The Constitution provides that If a
bill is not returned by the President
within 10 days, Sundays excepted, it
shall be law in the same manner as
if he signed it, unless Congress by their
adjournment prevent its return, in
which case it shall not be a law" The
question in this case was whether the
word adjournment" in the provision of
the Constitution refers only to final
adjournment of Congress or covers the
case of an adjournment of a session.
1t was a question of great Importance,
because that was the fate of the Muscle
Shoals bill, passed by both houses OF
Congress during the first session of the
Seventieth Congress. President Coolidge
took the position that by not returning
the bill he had vetoed it. Senator
Morris. who sponsored the Muscle
Shoals bill in the Senate, and other
members of Congress have taken the
position that the bill had become law,
since the President could have returned
it to the officers of the Congress, which
was still in existence.
Representative Summers of the judi
ciary committee argued that the pocket
veto is not an absolute veto, and was
not intended as such by the trainers of
the Constitution. The Constitution pro-
vides that in case the President vetoes
a measure ISlulll IL W lllC
House in which the bill originated and
must give reasons for his objections.
The exception to the rule exists where
Congress- by its adjournment. has made
it impossible to receive Executive COM
munications This, he argued, is the
case only when the Congress has come
to an end; during the vacations of Con-
gress, that Is, between the sessions OF
Congress, the officers of the respective
Houses are authorized to receive EXecu-
tive communications.
12O Instances Are Cited.
The Attorney General argued that a
practical construction of the provision
in the Constitution leads to the op-
posite conclusion. He pointed to no
less than 100 instances in which the
Presidents of the United States, be-
ginning with President Madison, "pock-
eted" bills of Congress by failing To
return the same, where the bills were
submitted to the President within 10
DAYS from the end of first sessions. To
the argument of the judiciary commit
tee that the officers of either House
may receive executive communications
! between sessions, the Attorney General
argued that no act has ever been passed
| to authorize any officer of either House
| of Congress to receive returned bills
and that no message of the President
| is received by either House, except
when it is in session.
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