When the President signs a bill into law, the signing ceremony is sometimes accompanied by a written statement that explains the administration's view of the legislation — what it means, how it will be implemented, and occasionally which provisions the President believes are unconstitutional and therefore will not be enforced. These are presidential signing statements, and they have real legal and political consequences despite having no formal constitutional status.
Three Types of Signing Statements
Rhetorical statements. Most signing statements are largely political — praise for the legislation, credit to the negotiators, explanation of the policy goals the bill advances. These are not legally significant and don't typically bind how the executive branch implements the law.
Interpretive statements. These express the administration's construction of ambiguous statutory language. When a bill doesn't clearly define a term or leaves discretion to the executive branch, the signing statement may specify how the administration will exercise that discretion. Courts sometimes look to signing statements as evidence of executive intent, though they're generally less authoritative than the legislative history in the Congressional Record.
Constitutional objections. The most significant — and most controversial — type of signing statement identifies provisions the President believes are unconstitutional: requirements that the President consult with Congress before taking certain actions, restrictions on the President's commander-in-chief authority, or requirements to disclose information the administration considers privileged. The statement signals that the President is signing the bill but reserving the right not to comply with those specific provisions.
The Legal Status of Signing Statements
Signing statements are not law. They don't have the force of statute. The President can't change what a bill says by signing it with a statement that reinterprets its language. Courts are not bound by signing statements and have sometimes explicitly declined to rely on them.
But they do matter in practice. When the executive branch implements a law, it exercises judgment on thousands of specific questions the statute doesn't address. A signing statement that signals the administration's interpretive approach shapes how agency lawyers and officials read their legal authority. A statement that identifies a provision as unconstitutional signals that the Department of Justice may advise against enforcing it.
The George W. Bush Controversy
Presidential signing statements were relatively obscure until the George W. Bush administration used them at an unprecedented scale. Between 2001 and 2009, President Bush issued signing statements challenging over 1,200 specific statutory provisions — more than all previous presidents combined. Many challenged provisions involving congressional oversight, inspector general reporting requirements, and limits on interrogation techniques.
The American Bar Association issued a task force report in 2006 concluding that signing statements that announce the President won't enforce enacted provisions are "contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system." The controversy prompted Senate hearings and proposals for legislation, none of which ultimately passed.
The practice has continued under subsequent administrations. Signing statements are now standard practice for any significant legislation with provisions the administration has concerns about.
How to Find Signing Statements
Presidential signing statements are published in the Federal Register and collected by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara — a comprehensive archive of presidential documents. The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) within the Department of Justice is responsible for advising on signing statement language; OLC opinions, when publicly available, provide the constitutional reasoning behind signing statement objections.
For legislation in the LegislationPatch database, signing statements accompany bills that the President signs into law. The text of the bill is what becomes law; the signing statement represents the executive's stated interpretation of that text.