The Pocket Veto Case
Headline: Late-session adjournment blocks bill from becoming law: Court affirms July adjournment prevented the President from returning the measure, so the tribes’ late claim bill did not become law.
Holding: The Court held that Congress’s adjournment prevented the President from returning the bill within ten days, so the bill did not become law without his signature, blocking the tribes’ claims.
- Late-session bills may fail if Congress adjourns before the President can return them.
- President must return vetoed bills to the House while it is in session.
- Private relief and pension measures passed late can be blocked by adjournment.
Summary
Background
A group of Okanogan and other Indian tribes in Washington relied on Senate Bill No. 3185, passed during the first session of the 69th Congress and presented to the President on June 24, 1926. Congress adjourned on July 3, 1926. The President neither signed nor returned the bill, and it was not published as law. The tribes filed in the Court of Claims; that court dismissed their petition, and the case reached this Court to decide whether the bill became law without the President’s signature.
Reasoning
The central question was whether Congress’s adjournment “prevented” the President from returning the bill within ten days (Sundays excepted). The Court read “days” as calendar days and held that “adjournment” can include an interim adjournment if it makes it impossible to return a bill to the House in session. The opinion explained that the President must return a bill to the House itself while it is organized and able to record objections; delivering the bill to an officer or clerk while the House is not sitting does not satisfy the Constitution. The Court also relied on long historical practice and examples in which similar late-session bills historically were not treated as laws.
Real world impact
The Court concluded the July 3 adjournment prevented the return, so Senate Bill No. 3185 did not become law and the tribes’ claims could not proceed under it. Going forward, bills presented less than ten calendar days before an adjournment may fail if the adjournment prevents a formal return to the House in session.
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