Congressman questions Patriot Act "autopen" signature

AP

Republican Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia sent President Obama a letter today questioning the constitutionality of the president's use of a device called an autopen to sign into law an extension of the Patriot Act.

Congress passed the bill Thursday night, shortly before certain provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire. However, Mr. Obama could not sign the bill right away in person, since he was in Europe for the G8 Summit. In order to sign the bill before the measures expired, he authorized the use of the autopen machine, which holds a pen and signs his actual signature.

The White House said Mr. Obama reviewed and approved the bill before authorizing the use of the autopen. The White House also highlighted the fact that the White House Office of Legal Counsel in 2005 determined that the use of the autopen was constitutional.

Still, Graves wrote to the president to request confirmation that he reviewed the legislation before the autopen signing, as well as "a detailed, written explanation of your Constitutional authority to assign a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills passed by Congress into law."

In an additional statement today explaining the letter, Graves said the use of the autopen could set a "dangerous precedent."

"Any number of circumstances could arise in the future where the public could question whether or not the president authorized the use of an autopen," he said. "For example, if the president is hospitalized and not fully alert, can a group of aggressive Cabinet members interpret a wink or a squeeze of the hand as approval of an autopen signing?"

Graves said he at first thought reports of the use of the autopen were "a joke."

[Bojax39]

Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel:
"...we conclude that the President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law. Rather, the President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the President's signature to such a bill, for example by autopen."

Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution:
"Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approves he shall sign it..."


Now how the name of chicanery did the OLC "conclude" that? Just where does the Constitution say it's okay for a machine to sign laws?

What happens years from now when the government wants to prove to the people that it's had the power to do some legal trickery for years?

Drag out a former president's autopen program to retroactively sign an empowering bit of "legislation", wait for the ink to dry and tell us the law is really decades old?

Has the smack of, (dare I say it?), the Orwellian "Ministry Of Truth", complete with a double-think ridden "Records Department".

No, an electronic signature may be used for many things, but using one to sign legislation is fraudulent, plain and simple. Bad news for anybody who expects the government to respect legalities to the letter.

Use of this travesty by ANY president of whatever party is WRONG

[trutwin]

Well if the Auto Pen was good enough for President George W. Bush it's certainly good enough for President Barack H. Obama.

[BJColter]

Why would the head Mufti need to follow the Constitution? He's got to attend to the Revolution, folks. Three Constitutional violations a day, that's his motto. Here's a song I wrote about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqdufoUASMc

[euge005]

To American Vet, good comments, but I sure hope that Air Force 1 does not still have fax machines in this day and ago. lol, and he could have waited to sign it, the comments by Sen Reed about grave injury to info collection if the act lapsed for even a moment was bull. Existing survallience missions would have been continued regardless. And I do think the criminals in the Bush admin thaty used millions of unlawfull wire taps need to be held accountable in cicil court for each and every instance., But even Paul Ryan can have a good comment and legit concern for freedom when he is not busy sucking up to the big money interests such as those you identified. Esp on this day I think we all need to resect that. Now if he only were to give up the effort to gut the mdical safety net.

[Lindag10]

Bunch of BS. If Congress had DONE their job they wouldn't have waited until the last second to pass the bill, knowing full well that the President was going to be out of the country. Then this goofus has the nerve to complain about how it was signed. ALL of Congress should be replaced with people would aren't so lazy and will actually pass bills in a timely manner. Sheez.

[bigsk8fan]

there are already provisions allowing for the vice president to take over the presidential duties when the president is incapacitated. congressman graves should have been listening to the constitution when it was being read as requested by speaker boener.

[Overruled1]

We should all be against the so called "P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act"
If you recall, congress passed it without even reading it, as if the title meant it was patriotic to vote in.
In actuality, what turned up was a free pass for law enforcement to simply ignore our "constitutional rights". Some of it was struck down by the courts, such as the right for the police to enter anyone's home without warrent, and leave without the property owners' ever knowing they were there. Basically home invasion legalized. Just the fact this was in the bill, and not mentioned when pressed, makes me hate this law, which I will forever remember as the beginning of the new "Dark Ages" in America.

[livinlikerome]

I agree...this law will one day be used against the people it is suppose to protect and defend...

[Harden_Tar]

Dear Rep. Graves: It is this kind of nit-noy trivial crap that drives the rest of America crazy. I am not saying that signing a bill into law is trivial. That is serious business. Waiting until the event is over and then playing the un-constitutional card is trivial. This happens from both sides of the aisle. Did NO ONE in Washington and Congress know this was going to happen? Did someone just now invent this autopen gizmo this week to get this bill signed? I am betting not. If this autopen was used ONE TIME in the past and you said nothing, you have no credibility at all.

[Harden_Tar]

Mr. Obama was the first president to use it. I still want to know why no one said anything before hand.

[justme2012]

Obama is the only president ever to "not sign" a bill into law using the autopen.

The auto pen was designed for use on mass produced junk like campaign fundraising letters.


Can't you just see millions of ignorant democrats framing their "signed" letters from the president.

[Patriot1789]

Article 1; Section 7 states in part: "Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it,...."

The president must be presented with the passed Bill, and "...he shall sign it..". No "wiggle room" here. If Obama did not receive the Bill after it was passed and then personally sign it, it is not law. No attorney general, President, nor even Congress itself can amend the Constitution by edict.

If Bush used an autopen than those Bills must be declared unconstitutional as well.

[MSC545]

Yes, well thank you for that pronouncement, Judge. Did I miss the part where you were appointed to the Supreme Court ?

[Sandranv]

Yeah! We could use a few Bush laws reversed!

[K. Daraa]

If our president is too busy to personally sign a bill into law, than he obviously is also too busy to read the law before signing it, which requires a heck of a lot more time than making a big school-girly 'O' with scribble in the middle!

[AmericanVeteran]

He is out of Country, he could have jumped on Air Force 1 and come back to sign but then fox inc would have complained about the cost.
There are fax machines on Air Force 1, I mean you all know that right?
Its just an anti President concerning anything/everything.
Fox has people believing that The President can actually be wrong regardless of how he does things, thank god those extremists are ever decreasing in numbers and also i want to once again thank all the Tea People that have joined forces with the workers rights movements all across the Country. This is also why I have stopped using derogatory nic names for the Tea party People, most of them are US that didn't know the Koch Bros had hijacked the organization before it even started. The only people who gained by the Tea Party was the Republican party who took all the money and used all the votes...

[euge005]

Like maybe he did the home work in advance? His people have been working with Congress for weeks if not months to get this done. He does not stumble around in a drunken fog like Bush did. Now I do question the wisdom of many of the provisions. But I wonder if the GOP goober from peanutville GA, was bothered when a number of his party members took their oath of office by vidio phone this year? Where was the concern then and they shouted down the Democrat who tried to block those members from being seated along a party live vote. Hyporcacy, thou art a repug.