Lawyers Scold Bush

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

The nation’s largest lawyers group said last week that President Bush’s bill-signing statements—in which he records objections to parts of measures as he signs them into law—are “contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system.” A bipartisan panel of the American Bar Association said Bush’s practice upsets the balance of power, since he is in effect declaring his intention not to enforce laws duly passed by Congress. Bush has appended such statements onto more than 100 laws, including the ban on torture—far more than his predecessors. White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush is merely setting “markers for issues that may later rise to be points of controversy.”