President Trump and the Presidential Signing Statement

Abstract:In 1981, Ronald Reagan created a task force intended to gain the initiative on immigration reform. But immigration reform presented obstacles to his political stance in repudiation of his Democratic predecessors. After four years of wrangling, internally as well as with Congress, many on the Reagan team viewed the immigration task force as having shackled the president to an unwinnable issue. Frustrated politically, Reagan aides shifted focus to an emerging presidential tactic—the signing statement. This allowed the president to sign the Immigration Reform and Control Act while setting important precedents for his larger conservative agenda. The trajectory from presidential task force to presidential signing statement on immigration reform reveals the challenges Reagan faced on policy issues outside his core priorities, and also the development of a tactic to maneuver through the challenges. Immigration reform became less about immigration than about serving the administration’s larger core priorities.

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Presidential Signing Statement

The American Congress Reader ◽

10.1017/cbo9780511816406.030 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 322-323

Author(s):

Steven S. Smith ◽

Jason M. Roberts ◽

Ryan J. Vander Wielen

Keyword(s):

Signing Statement ◽

Presidential Signing Statement

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President’s Signing Statement Objects to Detention Provisions in Defense Legislation

The American Journal of International Law ◽

10.5305/amerjintelaw.106.2.0360 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 106 (2) ◽

pp. 360-364 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

John R. Crook

Keyword(s):

Signing Statement

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The Unitary, or Unilateral Executive? Presidential Power in the Bush Administration

American Review of Politics ◽

10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2008.29.0.181-196 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 29 ◽

pp. 181-196 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christopher Kelley

Keyword(s):

Reagan Administration ◽

External Environment ◽

Bush Administration ◽

Executive Branch ◽

Constitutional Theory ◽

Presidential Power ◽

Signing Statement

The Bush administration came to office in 2001 determined to return powers to the president lost largely as a result of Watergate. Key to returning those powers is the unitary executive theory of presidential power—a constitutional theory of power developed by conservatives in the Reagan administration meant to offer the president offensive and defensive opportunities when working with an external environment that is polarized and hostile towards the executive branch. While the theory has been a part of each administration from Reagan through Bush II, it is the Bush II administration that has received the majority of the attention for its aggressive defense of a number of controversial actions by relying on the theory. Among those actions has been the use (or abuse) of the presidential bill signing statement. It is my purpose to argue that the administration has not behaved as a Unitarian but as something else entirely, leaving the powers of the office perhaps in worse shape than they found it.

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Presidential Signing Statements and the Rule of Law as an “Unstructured Institution"

10.31228/osf.io/gb2dc ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Peter M. Shane

Keyword(s):

Rule Of Law ◽

Separation Of Powers ◽

The Rule Of Law ◽

Signing Statements ◽

History Of ◽

Entire History ◽

The Government ◽

Signing Statement

The George W. Bush administration's use of signing statements embodied a disturbingly thin and formalist view of the rule of law that goes hand-in-hand with its vision of the separation of powers. Its signing statement practice was notable both for the extremity of the constitutional vision that these statements typically asserted—especially with regard to the so-called "unitary executive”—and with regard to their sheer volume, unmatched in the entire history of the executive. To understand the latter phenomenon, the Bush signing statements need to be understood not just as an expression of a constitutional philosophy, but also as an effort to institutionalize through faux law a highly presidential ethos as a fundamental element of the spirit with which the government conducts business.

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