Signing Statements

A signing statement is a written comment issued by the President when signing a bill into law. It may explain the law, instruct executive officials on how to implement it, or note constitutional objections to particular provisions.

Signing statements are a presidential tradition with a long but uneven history. James Monroe issued one in 1822. They were rare for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They became routine and controversial during the Reagan administration, which used them to articulate the President's view of how a new statute should be interpreted, partly to shape future judicial interpretation. President George W. Bush attracted significant attention for using signing statements to assert that he would interpret particular statutory provisions consistent with his understanding of his constitutional powers, sometimes signaling that he would not enforce provisions he believed unconstitutional. The practice continued under his successors. Signing statements are not law. They do not create or repeal anything. Courts may consider them as a piece of legislative or executive history, but a signing statement does not bind courts and does not change what a statute says. Their significance is institutional. A signing statement is the President's way of telling the executive branch how to read a statute and, sometimes, telling Congress what the President will and will not enforce. Critics argue that they amount to a kind of line-item veto, allowing the President to nullify provisions he dislikes without exercising the actual veto power that the Constitution provides. Defenders argue that the President has a duty to interpret the Constitution and that signing statements are a transparent way of doing so. The American Bar Association studied the question in 2006 and recommended limits on the practice. The debate has continued. Signing statements remain a routine feature of the modern presidency.