Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 483.0

524US2

Unit: $U93

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438

CLINTON v. CITY OF NEW YORK

Opinion of the Court

plain text of the statute, the two actions of the President
that are challenged in these cases prevented one section of
the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and one section of the Tax-
payer Relief Act of 1997 “from having legal force or effect.”
The remaining provisions of those statutes, with the ex-
ception of the second canceled item in the latter, continue
to have the same force and effect as they had when signed
into law.

In both legal and practical effect, the President has
amended two Acts of Congress by repealing a portion of
“[R]epeal of statutes, no less than enactment, must
each.
conform with Art. I.”
INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S. 919, 954
(1983). There is no provision in the Constitution that au-
thorizes the President to enact, to amend, or to repeal stat-
utes. Both Article I and Article II assign responsibilities to
the President that directly relate to the lawmaking process,
but neither addresses the issue presented by these cases.
The President “shall from time to time give to the Congress
Information on the State of the Union, and recommend to
their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge neces-
sary and expedient . . . .” Art. II, § 3. Thus, he may initiate
and inﬂuence legislative proposals.27 Moreover, after a bill
has passed both Houses of Congress, but “before it become[s]
a Law,” it must be presented to the President.
If he ap-
proves it, “he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with
his Objections to that House in which it shall have origi-
nated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Jour-
nal, and proceed to reconsider it.” Art. I, § 7, cl. 2.28 His

27 See 3 J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States
§ 1555, p. 413 (1833) (Art. II, § 3, enables the President “to point out the
evil, and to suggest the remedy”).

28 The full text of the relevant paragraph of § 7 provides:
“Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and
the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President
of the United States: If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall
return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have origi-
nated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and pro-