The Law: The “Protective Return” Pocket Veto: Presidential Aggrandizement of Constitutional Power

Abstract

This article discusses the all‐but‐unknown practice of recent presidents to exercise a so‐called “protective return” veto, whereby presidents simultaneously exercise both a return veto and a pocket veto for individual bills. Defended by recent administrations as a defense of the existing pocket veto power, this article argues that it is in fact an attempt to create a practical absolute veto, a power rejected by the Constitution's founders. Veto history and evolution are examined to explain and analyze this effort to redefine the president's constitutional veto authority.