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Patriot Act Extension By Autopen Raises Questions for Congressman
Okian Warrior writes "Congress passed the [Patriot act extension] 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. Republican Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia sent President Obama a letter today questioning the constitutionality."
I for one welcome our new law-signing robotic overlords.
... I'm... I'm sorry.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
I'd like to question the constitutionality of a lot more than just how it was signed.
YES
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
The device is called an "undergrad".
Because you can't extend a law which has expired. The provisions would have expired at midnight this morning, before the bill could have become law by default. This would have (arguably) rendered the extension null and void.
Hm... very interesting. He actually seems to have voted against it. "Graves said he believes the act gave too much power to the government, a problem cited by many of the people who helped elect him." Source here
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Unless the constitution outright states that the President must sign with pen-and-ink in person, I think there's enough precedent for many levels of government, foreign governments and extranational institutions accepting autopen signatures to render the constitutionality of the question moot.
This is what Article I Section 2 says:
All it says is that the President has to sign the bill for it to become law (except where Congress gets the 2/3s to override a Presidential veto). Since autopens have for a long time been seen as legitimate signatures, I doubt very much that there is any question as to the constitutionality of this particular signature.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Hmm, interesting that you call one of the few who stood up and voted against the law a "partisan hack". It would seem you can't see past the D or R next to a person's name. There's a name for that I think. It's right on the tip of my tongue...
Look, I'm not into the whole "political" thing.
But it isn't "Mr." Obama; it's Mr. President or President Obama.
You could also use The President or POTUS.
Saying "Mr." Obama isn't just disrespecting him, it's disrespecting The Office of the President. It's tacky.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
"Congress bumped up against the deadline mainly because of the stubborn resistance from a single senator, Republican freshman Rand Paul of Kentucky, who saw the terrorist-hunting powers as an abuse of privacy rights. Paul held up the final vote for several days while he demanded a chance to change the bill to diminish the government's ability to monitor individual actions. The bill passed the Senate 72-23."
- from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/26/politics/main20066686.shtml
Here's to the crazy ones
He's one of only 31 Republicans to have voted against it. And since this is his first term in federal government, he has never voted on it in the past. So I guess he deserves credit for the vote. Of course, he also voted to end Medicare, prevent the FCC from enforcing Net Neutrality, shut down Planned Parenthood, and keep troops in Afghanistan for longer.
So fuck him.
So worst case here, the PATRIOT Act renewal didn't take effect but will soon.
A bill that extends a law doesn't copy the law into a new law, it merely amends the expiration date that is written in the existing law. You can't amend a law that has expired, and a bill that is implicitly signed due to sitting for 10 days is not retroactive to when it was forwarded to the President, so it would have effectively become useless had it not been signed last night.
Of course not. However, this "Made in China" engraving makes me seriously question that the Autopen is a natural born citizen.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
... so the president can find out what's in it!
"They let me sign checks with a rubber stamp!" -H. Simpson.
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