From SLATE.com:

Until the election of George W. Bush, signing statements were used sparingly as a means to defy Congress. From the dawn of the republic until the inauguration of Bush fils, the nation’s first 42 presidents collectively used signing statements to challenge fewer than 600 laws. By the current sixth year of his presidency, Dubya has thus far used signing statements to challenge about 800 laws. Every piece of legislation that President Bush signs is first routed through Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, where Cheney’s Chief of Staff, David Addington, scans the bill for any perceived challenges to executive-branch authority. President Bush recently signed the first out-and-out veto of his administration, rejecting a bill that would have eased somewhat the current restrictions on stem-cell research. This was greeted as big news. But Addington has quietly been vetoing legislation for years by arranging, in effect, for Bush routinely to sign bills with two fingers crossed behind his back.

And, even better:

The ABA report recommends, among other things, that Congress pass a law requiring the president to inform Congress in timely fashion of those parts of existing legislation he intends to ignore, and why. The report then poses the inevitable question: “Could a president, in a signing statement, disregard even this legislation?” This, the ABA explains, is “precisely what occurred in 2002” after Congress, exasperated by Bush’s use of signing statements to withold all sorts of information that he was required by law to share with the legislative branch, passed a law requiring the attorney general to submit to Congress a detailed report of every instance in which he or any Justice Department official ignored these or any other legislative mandates.

You see where this is going. Bush signed the bill into law (U.S. Code 28 § 530D). Then the White House issued a signing statement that completely negated it. To read the footnotes, roll your mouse over the highlighted portions.

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