A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Here is what I wrote about Presidential signing statements a while back during the Alito confirmation hearings. And here is Orin Kerr on the issue. As a matter of policy, I think that Presidential signing statements would be most useful as a catalog of sorts regarding correspondence and negotiations between a particular Administration and Congress concerning a particular bill, and intended to clear up any vague language in a new law for purposes of easier enforcement concerning that language and the law in general. Professor Kerr rightly brings up concerns that Presidential signing statements may not be the most transparent writings in the world and as a result, at best, add nothing to the understanding of what a certain law might say or how that law should be enforced. At worst, of course, a signing statement might be used to deliberately obfuscate the language and enforcement of a law and therefore frustrate Congressional intent even when the language of the law in question might be clear on its face.