Legislative veto

The legislative veto is a veto that is granted the legislative power with respect to individual decisions of the executive power. It is relevant in systems of government that provide for a strict separation of powers of state institutions while mutual control.

United States

The legislative veto was used in the United States increased since the 1930s. It enjoyed great popularity in law, related to the restructuring of administrative authority. At the time the President of the United States was granted the power to reorganize agencies within the executive branch. However, the Congress reserved the right to revoke these decisions in individual cases by majority vote.

INS v. Chadha

In the United States was introduced with the Immigration and Nationalization Act a form of legislative veto. The law stipulated that the immigration authorities could deportation illegal immigrant foreigners who have spent at least seven years in the country pick up, unless the Attorney General agreed that repeal. At the same time, the law required, however, that the Attorney General had to report to Congress on such cases and that could force the removal by majority vote still one of the two chambers of Congress.

This clause was the 1983 main theme in the case of Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha before the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court ruled that the self-created veto violates the constitution. First, it violates the bicameral principle, which states that all laws must be carried out jointly and identically from the House of Representatives and the Senate. Furthermore, the law violates the Vorlegungsgebot, which legislation must be submitted to the president for approval.

Budgetary constraints

The Gramm-Rudman - Hollings Balanced Budget Act of Congress in 1985 determined that the Comptroller General, head of the Congress under -standing Government Accountability Office, the authority had to freeze items in the household, if certain deficit targets are not met. The Act further increase in the U.S. budget deficit should be prevented. The Supreme Court decided this case Bowsher v. Synar in 1986 that this scheme also violates the Constitution because Congress had thus, in principle, created an unconstitutional legislative veto.