President Obama has issued a new memo that seeks to restrict his administration’s use of presidential signing statements, one of the key techniques that President Bush used to get around the law.
Among other things, the memo directs executive branch officials to tell Congress ahead of time if there are constitutional concerns about pending legislation, thereby reducing the number of occasions when a signing statement will be needed.
It also declares that the president will act with “caution and restraint” in determining whether an act of Congress is unconstitutional.
And it pledges that the president’s signing statements will identify “constitutional concerns about a statutory provision with sufficient specificity to make clear the nature and basis of the constitutional objection.”
You can see the full memo here …
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