LETTER TO DWIGHT D. OPPERMAN FROM EDWIN MEESE III

Document Type:

CREST [1]

Collection:

General CIA Records [2]

Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):

CIA-RDP90B01390R000801050002-4

Release Decision:

RIPPUB

Original Classification:

Document Page Count:

Document Creation Date:

December 27, 2016

Document Release Date:

January 20, 2011

Sequence Number:

Case Number:

Publication Date:

December 13, 1985

Content Type:

LETTER

File:

Attachment	Size
CIA-RDP90B01390R000801050002-4.pdf [3]	176.62 KB

Body:

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP90B01390R000801 p'~.L ~ffur Df tl~r ~liiornrp ~rnrnsl ~asl~ington,~. ~. 2D53D 13 December 1985 !+lz. Dwight D. Opperman President and Chief Executive Officer West Publishing Company 50 W. Kellogg Boulevard St. Paul, Minnesota 55102 Dear Mr. Opperman: ILLEGIB The purpose of this letter is to request that the West Publishing Company include the text of presidential signing statements in United States Code Con sessional and Administrative b_ews as part of the legislative history of the Acta of Congress. Currently, it appears that the legislative history section of the U.S.C.C.A.N. includes a cross-reference to the We__ ekl~r _ Compilation of Presidential Docume= for the President's signing statement on mayor bills. However, the text of presidential signing statements regularly appears only in the Weekly Compi- lation and in the bound volumes of the Official Pa ers of the President. Though available in most large legal research 1 raries and law school libraries, these references cannot be considered readily available to most attorneys. In view of the importance of presidential signing statements in resolving statutory interpreta- tion questions, I would like to see them made more. readily available to the legal community. Article I, S 7, cl. 2 of the Constitution,.vhich provides that no bill shall become law until it has been presented to the President for his approval or disapproval, gives the President an important and formal role in the legislative process. See United States v. Lovett, 328 U.S. 303, 324-25 (1946) (Frankfurte-ir, J.,- concurring) ("the legislation upon which we now pass judgment is the product of both Houses of Congress and the President"). Indeed, in INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983), the Supreme Court, in holding a single-house legislative veto provision unconsti- tutional, recently reaffirmed the vital role of the President and declared it "beyond doubt that lawmaking (is) a power to be shared by both Houses and the President." Id. at 947. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP90B01390R000801050002-4 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP90B01390R000801050002-4 To the extent that facial ambiguities require that one to beyond the language of a statute to determine its meanie views of each of the bodies that have 9. theok considered. Courts have repeatedly zecognisedcthetimportanculd be presidential signing statements in statutor a of Clifton D. Ma hew Inc. v. Y construction. S_ 969), (rel in u wirts, 413 F.2d 658, 661-62 (4th Cir. Y? g pon President Truman's signing statement as well '? as a statement by one of the bill's floor managers in constru the portal-to-Portal Act 29 O S C ing Conservation 1-ss'n v. xle e t 259)= National parks i 9 6) re yang on sign ng statement?as an3indication D C possible breadth of the trade secrets exemption from Cir. of Information Act S 0 S C of ~! Lovett, 328 O.S. 303, 313?~19465S2(b)(4))? Cf. the Freedom statement in finding congressionalcbarnon Onited States v. employees unless they were a g Presidentia sign ng Senate to be unconstitutional bill of at Payment of salaries to ppointed by president and confirmed by the legislative veto cases tainder). Similarly, in been used to rebut su ? Presidential signing statements have devices, see Chadha ggestfons of presidential acquiescence in the ? 462 O.S. at 942 n.13, and of the absence of a stalemate etween the political branches, see Consumer Enez Council v. FERC, 673 F.2d 425, 453-54 (D.C. Cir. 1981) aff d 463 U.S. 1216 (1983). _?. In view of the importance of presidential signing statements as an aid to statutory interpretation, I recommend that those statements be reproduced in full in U.S.C.C.A.N., rather than merely cross-referenced. 8y doing so, lawyers and courts en a ed in statutory interpretation would have more readily availablg g them in one location both the procedural history of an a to statute and its interpretation by the Chief Executive uponven enactment. Nith best wishes, Sincerely, EDWIN MEESE III Attorney General Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP90B01390R000801050002-4 ~~~~ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20 :CIA-RDP90B01390R000801050002-4 ~~ ~P+~Y ? 50 W. Kenopp Bivd , P.O. Boa 6526. St. Paul, MN 55164-0526 Tel: 6121228-?500 DWIGHT D. OPPERMAN -rw~o~m L Crw~ E.auwe pea, December 26, 1985 Hon, Edwin Meese III Attorney General Office of the Attorney General Washington, D.C. 20530 Dear Mr. Attorney General: Thank you for your letter of December 13 which did not arrive here until December 23. We appreciate your suggestion. 1 think the President's signing statement on major bills will be of interest and of help to the legal profession. 1 am surprised nobody thought of it before. I have told our editorial people to start including them in U.S.C.C.A.N. With esteem, I remain Very truly yours, ~ // _~ / Ple~iden` ~ Vig Chlef ODO:pz Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20 :CIA-RDP90B01390R000801050002-4 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP90B01390R000801050002-4 ~- - -ATRICK J IEAMY, VERM 06T. VICE CHAIRMAN rif ;,{Ei) CC ~ ' T WIIUAM V 110TH. J11.. DEIAWAl1E llOrD LENTSEN. TERAS WILl1AM L COHEN, MAINE iAM NUNN, GE011GIA OAIRN MATCH, UTAH TNOMAf i. EAGIETON. MIfS0U1M /NANR ~1VlROwiRI. 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