On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Files Freedom of Information Act Request with Department of Justice for Presidential Signing Statements
Rutherford Institute, Constitution Project File Joint FOIA Request
Washington, D.C. -- The Rutherford Institute has filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information about the use of so-called "signing statements" by President George W. Bush and the past four United States presidents. Signing statements are written comments that presidents sometimes attach to legislation to signal disagreement with or comment on the laws passed by Congress. Concern about these statements and whether they also signal an intention to disregard the law has grown in recent months as information about President George W. Bush's unusually frequent use of them has come to light.
"The system of checks and balances created by our country's founders preserves Americans' freedoms and our country's security," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "We need to gather full information on signing statements so that we don't allow the constitutional equilibrium to veer off course."
The Freedom of Information Act request, which was filed jointly by The Rutherford Institute and the Constitution Project, a bipartisan Washington-based organization promoting constitutional safeguards, asks the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel to produce all information, whether public or nonpublic, about these presidential signing statements since January 20, 1977. Whitehead issued the FOIA request as president of The Rutherford Institute and as a member of the Constitution Project's Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances, whose members--conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats-- are former government officials and judges, scholars, and other Americans who believe in a strong president, a strong Congress, and a strong federal judiciary. The Coalition's members believe that the current risk of permanent and unchecked presidential power, and the accompanying failure of Congress to exercise its responsibility as a separate and independent branch of government, has created a constitutional crisis, and that without true cooperation among the three branches of government, Americans are less free and less safe.
"Signing statements are nothing new under the sun, but media reports have raised serious questions about whether the President is using them to avoid enforcing laws he dislikes," said Virginia E. Sloan, President of the Constitution Project. "We want to look at this practice over time to determine whether these statements are being used as an end-run around the Constitution."
