Law: The Continuing Significance of the Legislative Veto

Abstract

AbstractThis article describes the three‐branch dynamics of the legislative veto before and after the 1983 Supreme Court case Immigration and Naturalization Services v. Chadha. This congressional authority had been used as a check against executive branch action since the 1850s and became more prevalent and controversial in the twentieth century. Decades after the Supreme Court invalidated the congressional power to use the legislative veto, Congress has found ways to get around the judicial ruling. Yet the Chadha precedent fundamentally changed power between the branches in many ways. In the years following the Supreme Court decision, the precedent was used to invalidate or alter a number of important pieces of legislation designed to oversee executive branch authority. Congress can still slip legislative veto‐like provisions into some bills, but Chadha's effect on presidential war and emergency powers means Congress must somehow muster large supermajorities to get its way.