Bush and "Signing Statements"

[Adkenar]

Most of his statements claimed that he felt part of the laws were an unconstitutional limit to his power. Thing is, it's not up to the President to decide what's constitutional; that's the job of the Supreme Court.

One of the examples was that he felt that legislative bans on torture violated his constitutional powers as commander-in-chief to direct the armed forces. Thing is, the Constitution also gives Congress the power to "make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water".

Bush also claims in one that he can divert money to "secret operations", again as his constitutional power as the President. Thing is, article 1, section 9 of the constitution says that "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law"

There were also examples of cases where the Supreme Court had upheld a law as constitutional, and Bush continued to write that he would ignore it based on unconstitutionality (in this case, it was a law allowing certain officials in teh executive branch to act independently of the President). Again, it is not the President's power to decide what is and is not constitutional.

(Source I'm using)