Reality Check: Breaking Down Obama’s NDAA Signing Statement [View all]

[Tx4obama]

The President issued a signing statement when he signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law. Conservatives are freaking out over the alleged hypocrisy of Obama’s usage of a signing statement and the less hysterical are still confused as to what it really means, if indeed, it means anything. So, let’s break it down.

A signing statement is something of a public pronouncement a president might make about a bill they are signing into law. They have been used to clarify their positions or elaborate dissent. In modern times, they are used to direct executive agencies to interpret the law according to the President’s interpretation of the Constitution.

As such, Attorney General Eric Holder explained that the signing statement clarifies how the Obama administration views the law and how they (executive agencies like the DoJ) will interpret it.

Obama used this signing statement to amend and clarify his administration’s interpretation of NDAA, a bill he is already on record as objecting to. Due to the administration’s objections and the ACLU’s objections, the language in the original was clarified and changed. However, all law is open to interpretation and can’t be taken alone – the NDAA in concert with the Patriot Act, for example, could be interpreted to mean something much differently than the Obama administration would want to agree to – thus, the signing statement.

SNIP

http://www.politicususa.com/en/reality-obama-ndaa-signing-statement

p.s. The article is about much more than just the NDAA 'signing statement', the article talks about signing statements in general.