“We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will…authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president’s acts declared unconstitutional,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor.
The “signing statements” Specter refers to are those conditions that Bush has been attaching to bills. Approximately 750 bills have those statements attached, which reserve his right to “revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.”
The American Bar Association says that these statements violate the Constitution.
The task force said the statements suggest the president will decline to enforce some laws. Bush has had more than 800 signing statement challenges, compared with about 600 signing statements combined for all other presidents, the group said.
[…]
The ABA report said President Reagan was the first to use the statements as a strategic weapon, and that it was encouraged by then-administration lawyer Samuel Alito — now the newest Supreme Court justice.
Specter’s bill, which will allow Congress to sue Bush in federal court, should be ready by the end of the week.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Let’s hope the senator keeps his words; it seems he was huffing and puffing about domestic spying and after all was said and done, Specter caved in.