Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 484.0

524US2

Unit: $U93

[09-11-00 13:25:42] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 524 U. S. 417 (1998)

439

Opinion of the Court

“return” of a bill, which is usually described as a “veto,” 29 is
subject to being overridden by a two-thirds vote in each
House.

There are important differences between the President’s
“return” of a bill pursuant to Article I, § 7, and the exercise
of the President’s cancellation authority pursuant to the Line
Item Veto Act. The constitutional return takes place before
the bill becomes law; the statutory cancellation occurs after
the bill becomes law. The constitutional return is of the en-
tire bill; the statutory cancellation is of only a part. Al-
though the Constitution expressly authorizes the President
to play a role in the process of enacting statutes, it is silent
on the subject of unilateral Presidential action that either
repeals or amends parts of duly enacted statutes.

There are powerful reasons for construing constitutional
silence on this profoundly important issue as equivalent to
an express prohibition. The procedures governing the en-
actment of statutes set forth in the text of Article I were
the product of the great debates and compromises that
produced the Constitution itself. Familiar historical materi-
als provide abundant support for the conclusion that the
power to enact statutes may only “be exercised in accord
with a single, ﬁnely wrought and exhaustively considered,

ceed to reconsider it.
If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that
House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objec-
tions, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and
if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in
all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and
Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall
be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.
If any Bill shall
not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted)
after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like
Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment
prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.”

29 “In constitutional terms,

power under Art. I, § 7, of the Constitution.”
919, 925, n. 2 (1983) (citing Black’s Law Dictionary 1403 (5th ed. 1979)).

‘veto’ is used to describe the President’s
INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S.