Presentment Clause

Presentment Clause is a component of the United States Constitution that outlines the process by which bills become law. Specifically, it is found in Article I, Section 7, Clauses 2 and 3. The clause stipulates that every bill which has passed the Congress, before it becomes a law, must be presented to the President.

Text

The text of the Presentment Clause, as found in the United States Constitution, reads as follows:

"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 originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it."

Function

The Presentment Clause serves several functions in the legislative process. First, it provides a mechanism for the President to participate in the legislative process through the veto power. If the President disapproves of a bill, he can return it to the house where it originated along with his objections. This is known as a veto, and it can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress.

Second, the clause ensures that both houses of Congress have passed a bill in the same form before it can become law. This is achieved by requiring that the bill be presented to the President after it has passed both houses.

Finally, the Presentment Clause provides a record of the bills that have been presented to the President and the actions he has taken on them. This is done through the requirement that the President's objections be entered in the journal of the house where the bill originated.

Interpretation

The interpretation of the Presentment Clause has been the subject of several Supreme Court cases. In general, the Court has held that the clause requires a bill to be presented to the President before it can become law, and that the President must either sign the bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.

One of the most significant cases involving the Presentment Clause was Clinton v. City of New York, in which the Supreme Court struck down the Line Item Veto Act as a violation of the clause. The Court held that the Act, which allowed the President to selectively veto certain parts of bills, violated the Presentment Clause because it allowed the President to create a different law than the one passed by Congress.

See also

• Veto
• United States Constitution
• United States Congress
• President of the United States
• Clinton v. City of New York