Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Nebraska
RE: military commissions act of 2006
i heard about this but i wanted to ask a lawyer to be sure.
according to wikipedia:
From the U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 7: ''...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. ''
according to public record, the military commissions act of 2006 was passed by congress on 29 sept. 2006 and was presented to the president on 10 oct. 2006. congress adjourned on 13 oct. 2006. the president signed into law the military commissions act of 2006 on 17 oct. 2006, four days after the deadline.
my question is, does the adjournment of congress prevent the enstatement of this bill into law due to Art. 1 sec. 7 of the u.s. constitution or by ''adjournment'' does this part of the costitution mean the end of the two year term? if, however, congress were to take a two week recess, what effect would this have on the president deadline for enstatement of the bill into law?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: RE: military commissions act of 2006
I think you have miscalculated.
If the bill was presented to the president on October 10 and he had 10 days (not including Sundays) in which to sign it, the "deadline" would have been October 21. The president's October 17 signature was thus timely.
The fact that Congress adjourned three days after presenting the bill to the President did not deprive him of the full 10-day window provided by Article 1, section 7. I think this is where you went astray. If this were how it worked, the president would only have had three days in which to consider this bill. Section 7, though, expressly says that he will always have 10 days. Congress cannot shorten this period by adjourning (or any other way).
An adjournment of Congress would prevent the president from returning a bill to it unsigned, but it has no effect on his ability to sign the bill if he so chooses. The language you quote thus does not apply in this instance.
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