Veto power in the United States

In the United States, the president can use the veto power to prevent a bill passed by the Congress from becoming law.

If Congress overrides the veto by a two-thirds vote in each house, it becomes law without the president's signature.

[5][6] A bill becomes law without the president's signature if it is not signed within the ten days allotted, if Congress is still in session.

[7][8][9] Those statements do not have precedential value, although their reasoning may be respected within the executive branch, and can contribute to the American constitutional tradition.

[14] And the 1777 New York constitution established a "Council of Revision" made up of the governor, chancellor and state Supreme Court judges, which could issue a qualified veto of legislation.

[17] Further, as Elbridge Gerry explained in the final days of the convention: "The primary object of the revisionary check of the President is not to protect the general interest, but to defend his own department.

[22] Apportionment described how Congress divides seats in the House of Representatives among the states based on the US census figures.

Thus, the constitutional principle of bicameralism and the separation of powers doctrine were disregarded in this case, and this legislative veto of executive decisions was struck down.

In 1996, the United States Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed, the Line Item Veto Act of 1996.

In Clinton v. City of New York (524 U.S. 417 (1998)), the court found the language of the Constitution required each bill presented to the president to be either approved or rejected as a whole.

An action by which the president might pick and choose which parts of the bill to approve or not approve amounted to the president acting as a legislator instead of an executive and head of state—and particularly as a single legislator acting in place of the entire Congress—thereby violating the separation of powers doctrine.

[27] Prior to this ruling, President Clinton had applied the line-item veto to the federal budget 82 times.

[30] In 2009, Senators Russ Feingold and John McCain introduced legislation of a limited version of the line-item veto.

[49] In Guam[50] and the USVI,[51] the territory's organic law defines the governor's veto powers.

[53] The governor has used this power to provoke legislative change, for example in 2018 with the item veto of the Taulamwaar Sensible CNMI Cannabis Act, which included a veto of a $5 registration fee for cannabis licenses because it was too low,[55] which led to subsequent legislation imposing a $25 fee.

[54] Some Samoan legislators have criticized the secretarial veto provision as a throwback to colonial government,[58] but referendums to remove it have been repeatedly defeated, most recently in 2018.

[51] The elected governor has held the line-item veto since 1954, under the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands.

[45] In 1976, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the existing statutory language did not allow for an override.

[61][62] Mayors in a mayor-council government often have a veto power over local ordinances passed by the city council.

However, the mayor of Charlotte, who otherwise serves chiefly as a ceremonial head of government and tiebreaker on council votes, has a veto power over most city legislation.

[73] Mayors in the early 19th century were often appointed rather than elected, and typically served one-year terms.

[74] As cities grew, the mayoral role was strengthened, becoming an independently elected office with multi-year terms, in part as an effort to limit the political power of immigrants.

Arkansas adopted a constitutional amendment in 1974 that gave all county judges a veto that can be overridden by a three-fifths majority of the quorum court.

[82] The constitutions of many Native American tribes contain an executive veto power over bills passed by the tribal council.

[83] For example, the chairperson of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians has a veto power, including over budgetary matters.

[90] Some tribes have amended their constitutions to eliminate the secretarial veto, as the Citizen Potawatomi Nation did in 2007.