Candidate Obama made it clear on the campaign trail that he rejected the ABA’s risible conclusion that a president may not properly use signing statements to state his constitutional objections to provisions in laws that he is signing:
“No one doubts that it is appropriate to use signing statements to protect a president’s constitutional prerogatives.”
Well, no one other than the members of the ABA’s task force that produced its ridiculous report. (For various of my criticisms of the ABA’s report, see here, here, here, and here.)
Given that the ABA is pigheadedly sticking to its position, I’m glad to see this report that President Obama, in signing the omnibus spending bill today, “released a ‘signing statement’ in which he said several of the bill’s provisions raised constitutional concerns.” (As for the omnibus bill itself, I doubt very much that it is to be welcomed.)