Court Opinion

ID: 9430772
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:30:32.637413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:26.051582
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
with whom Justice White joins, dissenting.
In my opinion this case is not moot. The United States Senate and the Bipartisan Leadership Group of the House of Representatives retain the same sort of interest in obtaining a ruling on the merits as they did prior to September 30, 1984. Prior to that date H. R. 4042, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. (1983), was either a “dead letter” because it had been killed by a valid pocket veto, or it was a valid law because the President’s attempt to veto it was ineffective. If H. R. 4042 was a valid law, petitioners had a duty to publish it in the Statutes at Large of the United States; the Executive had a duty to discontinue military aid to El Salvador during the period between January 16, 1983, and September 30, 1984, unless the President could certify that El Salvador was progressing in protecting human rights; the Secretary of State had a duty to report to Congress the amount of any military aid that had been provided during that period in violation of the terms of H. R. 4042; and the Comptroller General had, and according to respondents may still have,* a duty to recover any amounts that were unlawfully allocated.
*366There is, of course, a serious question whether the Senate of the United States and a group of 33 Congressmen have standing to enforce those duties in this litigation. But if we assume — as the Court does, ante, at 364, n., and as we should for purposes of analyzing the mootness issue — that the Legislature’s interest in protecting its work product from nullification by the Executive would have been sufficient to support standing prior to September 30, 1984, that interest is also sufficient to support standing today. As long as the question whether H. R. 4042 ever became a law continues to have practical significance, Congress retains its interest in ensuring that its enactments are given their proper legal effect.
The congressional interest in finding out whether the Executive has acted illegally in distributing funds to foreign sovereigns surely survives the period during which the prohibition on expenditures was in effect. Arguably that interest should be pursued in congressional committee investigations rather than litigation. But if we assume that the federal courthouse was a proper forum for resolution of the issues tendered by this complaint prior to September 30, 1984, it remains so today. Whatever else may be said about this case, it is not moot.

Respondents argue that a court decision that the pocket veto was invalid might still result in the return of ‘some funds from the official or officials who made disbursements without legal authority. See Brief for *366Respondents Barnes and United States Senate 33-36 (discussing 31 U. S. C. § 1341(a)(1); 31 U. S. C. §§3523-3525).