Obama won't personally sign patriot act extension

[ssforronpaul]

So much for needing to get it done to rush it over to Obama in Europe. Just one more lie on top of the others. http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/05/obama-wont-personally-sign-patriot-act-extension.html

ssforronpaul

[Anti Federalist]

Color me surprised, the government decides what the constitution means.


ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe (@jaffematt) and Devin Dwyer (@devindwyer) report: Congress is expected to officially pass an extension of the Patriot Act tonight, just hours before key provisions of the national security law are due to lapse at midnight.

President Obama, currently on an overseas trip, is not at the White House to sign the bill, a requirement for the measure to become law.

So the president will use an autopen –- a machine that replicates Obama’s signature -– to sign the extension, according to White House spokesman Nick Shapiro.

"Failure to sign this legislation poses a significant risk to U.S. national security. As long as Congress approves the extension, the President will direct the use of the autopen to sign it," Shapiro said in a statement.

Jay Wexler, a Boston University law professor and author of “The Odd Clauses: Understanding the Constitution Through Ten of Its Most Curious Provisions,” says the constitutionality of using an autopen was confirmed in a thorough 2005 Office of Legal Counsel opinion.

Here's the relevant passage written by then-Deputy Attorney General Howard C. Nielson:

“We examine the legal understanding of the word 'sign' at the time the Constitution was drafted and ratified and during the early years of the Republic. We find that, pursuant to this understanding, a person may sign a document by directing that his signature be affixed to it by another. … Reading the constitutional text in light of this established legal understanding, we conclude that the President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill to sign it within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 [of the Constitution.]"

[ssforronpaul]

I found that suprising as well. I wonder if this way of signing has ever been challenged in court. I doubt they would accept a challenge to this bill since nobody seems to have standing against this law. But what if another law that was signed the same way was overturned, then all laws signed that way would be overturned (including the Patriot Act Extension), as well.

ssforronpaul

[V3n]

If I tried to sell an 'autograph' of Obama that was signed by autopen it would be worthless, just like this piece of crap legislation!!

[Carson]

I'll bet he will if ordered to do so.

[belian78]

Heh... I can't even muster surprise anymore. A pox on all their houses.

[brandon]

Wow. My inner conspiracy theorist is churning....

Obama didn't want to sign it in person because it would have became a big media event. It would have come back to hurt him big time in the 2012 elections. That's why it was so important to get it pushed through before he came back from vacation.

[low preference guy]

Obama didn't want to sign it in person because it would have became a big media event. It would have come back to hurt him big time in the 2012 elections. That's why it was so important to get it pushed through before he came back from vacation.

makes perfect sense. not a "conspiracy theory".

[Romulus]

Thats right... he doesnt want his photo op - so he has a friggin robo-pen sign the thing!