News & Features

On Saturday, Feb. 3, the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal and the Institute of Bill of Rights Law will co-sponsor a symposium titled "The Last Word? The Constitutional Implications of Presidential Signing Statements." The conference will be held in Room 124 at the Law School. Admission is free and all are welcome. Story by Bill of Rights Journal staff

On Saturday, Feb. 3, the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal and the Institute of Bill of Rights Law will co-sponsor a symposium titled "The Last Word? The Constitutional Implications of Presidential Signing Statements." The conference will be held in Room 124 at the Law School. Admission is free and all are welcome.

During the symposium, panelists will focus on the constitutional issues raised by the historical and recent practice of the President attaching qualifications to signed law, known as “signing statements.” These signing statements may give the President the “last word” about the law just before it is adopted. The outstanding question is whether this last word has any consequence, and in the likely event that it does, what is the consequence.

Although the practice has existed as long as the office of the President, signing statements have taken on a new and potent role in the law-making process under recent presidents. They may have broad modern implications for every administrative agency, for the independent judiciary, and for congressional power. In President Bush’s first term, he raised over five hundred constitutional challenges to new law using this mechanism. The Senate held hearings to consider a response to the rapid growth of the practice and recently the American Bar Association resolved to oppose the use of signing statements. The increase in volume and force of content of the signing statements has provoked political and scholarly inquiry into their use.

The symposium will explore each of these issues in detail. Four panels will explore the history and politics of signing statements as well as the consequences for the judiciary, Congress, and government agencies. Participants include Christopher Bryant, University of Cincinnati College of Law; Phillip Cooper, Portland State University; Neal Devins, William & Mary Law School; Bruce Fein, The Lichfield Group; Dr. Louis Fisher, Library of Congress; Michele Gilman, University of Baltimore School of Law; Christopher Kelley, Miami University; Neil Kinkopf, Georgia State University College of Law; Harold Krent, Chicago-Kent School of Law; Nelson Lund, George Mason University; M. Elizabeth Magill, University of Virginia School of Law; Michael Rappaport, University of California at San Diego; Taylor Reveley, William & Mary Law School; Christopher Schroeder, Duke Law School; Peter Shane, Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law; Hon. F. Bradford Stillman, United States District Court; and William Van Alstyne, William & Mary Law School.

For more information, contact Katherine Lee Martin, Symposium Editor, at wmborj@wm.edu (or call 757/221-3810).