Ins v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 

Supreme Court of the United States

1983

Chapter

4

Title

Distribution of National Powers

Page

417

Topic

Domestic Affairs

Quick Notes

The House of Representatives passed a resolution overriding the Attorney General's decision to allow Chadha (P), a deportable alien, to remain in the U.S.

Congress delegated to the Attorney General, in the Immigration and Nationality Act, the authority to suspend deportation of aliens in certain situations. However, in order to retain some control over this delegated power, Congress reserved to itself a legislative veto over each decision by the Attorney General suspending deportation. The veto could be exercised by a resolution passed by either house within a certain time after the Attorney General's decision to suspend deportation. Chadha, the plaintiff, was one of several aliens as to whom the House of Representatives used its veto power to reverse the Attorney General's suspension of deportation.

Supreme Court held that a typical one-house legislative veto was unconstitutional, because it violated both the President's veto power and the bicameral structure of Congress.

Rule

o         A House of Congress may not act alone if its act is an exercise of legislative power and does not fall within one of the specific exceptions stated in the Constitution.

Application

o         The Supreme Court finds that the legislative veto is an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers.

Veto provision stricken: The Supreme Court struck down this legislative veto as a violation of two distinct constitutional requirements.

1.     First, the veto violated the Presentment Clause (Art. I, 7, cl. 2), which requires that every bill be presented to the President for his signature, so that he may have the opportunity to veto it.

2.     Secondly, this particular veto provision, since it could be exercised by a single house, violated the bicameral requirement of Article I, 1 and 7, by which both houses must pass a bill before it can become law.

Book Name

Constitutional Law : Stone, Seidman, Sunstein, Tushnet.  ISBN:  978-0-7355-7719-0

Issue

o         Whether one house of Congress can act unilaterally to invalidate a decision by the executive branch? No.

o         Whether the House's issuance of the legislative veto here itself constituted the exercise of legislative power?  Yes.

Procedure

Appellant

o         United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit holding unconstitutional the provision in 244(c)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C.S. 1254(c)(2), authorizing one House of Congress to invalidate the decision of the Executive Branch, pursuant to authority delegated by Congress to the Attorney General, to allow respondent deportable alien to remain in the United States

Supreme

o         Affirmed

Facts

Discussion

Key Phrases

Rules

Pl Ins

Df Chadha

Chadha, Student Visa Expired

o          Chadha (P), an East Indian, had remained in the U.S. after the expiration of his student visa.

Deportable Status

o          Was deportable by the INS (D).

Attorney General Suspend Deportation

o         Acting under the authority of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act), the Attorney General of the US suspended Chadha's (P) deportation, permitting Chadha (P) to remain in the U.S. legally.

If alien met requirements

o         The Act authorized such suspension if the alien met certain qualifications and would suffer "extreme hardship" if deported.

Allowed invalidation

o         The Act also allowed one house of Congress to invalidate a suspension by the executive branch by resolution.

Housed Passed Invalidation Resolution

o          A year and a half after Chadha's suspension was granted by the Attorney General, the House of Representatives passed a resolution that Chadha and other aliens did not meet the suspension qualifications, and therefore their deportations should not be suspended.

Chadha Challenged

o         Chadha (P) challenged the provision of the Act authorizing one house of Congress to invalidate a suspension decision by the executive branch.

Unconstitutional Provision

o         The Court of Appeals found the provision unconstitutional as a violation of separation of powers.

Justice Burger

If no exception, A House of Congress may not act alone

o         A house of Congress may not act alone if its act is an exercise of legislative power and does not fall within one of the specific exceptions stated in the Constitution.

Bills, Orders, Resolutions, Votes must be presented to president

Presentment Clause To become law, It has to be presented and approved by Pres.

o         The presentment clauses of the Constitution require that all legislation be presented to the President before becoming law and this rule applies not just to bills, but to orders, resolutions, and votes as well.

Bicameral Legislature Requirement

o         The Constitution's requirement of a bicameral legislature, along with the President's veto and the legislature's veto override, ensure that all legislation will be carefully considered by the nation's elected officials before it is enacted.

o         The constitutional presentment and bicameralism requirements do apply to the House's resolution, as the resolution was legislative in character.

Houses veto alter legal rights of Chadha and 6 others.

o         The House's act altered the legal rights and status of several parties including Chadha (P).

o         Further proof of the legislative character of the one-house veto is the fact that the veto is a substitute for actual legislation by Congress.

o         In other words, without the one-house veto, both houses of Congress would have to pass legislation requiring deportation in the usual manner.

Congress Delegated Authority to the President (Must Abide by President Now!!!)

o         Congress made the decision to delegate authority over deportation suspensions to the executive branch; now it must abide by that choice.

Four Situations that One House of Congress can Act Alone

o         There are, however, certain constitutionally specified situations in which one house of Congress is not required to present its actions to the president or to the other house.

1. Houses power to initial impeachments
2. The Senates power to conduct trials following impeachments.
3. The Senates power over presidential appointments.
4. The Senates power to ratify treaties.

Veto Restriction is unconstitutional

o         Since the resolution here was clearly not within one of those exceptions, the House was subject to the presentment and bicameralism clauses.

o         The system of separation of powers and checks and balances may be inefficient, but it is the best way that has been found to preserve freedom from arbitrary exercises of power.

o         The challenged one-house veto is unconstitutional.

o         Judgment affirmed.

CONCURRENCE Justice Powell

o         This case should have been decided on the narrower ground that Congress was performing a function generally reserved to the judiciary when it determined that Chadha did not meet the statutory requirements for a deportation suspension.

o         The House did not enact a general rule; rather it  [*965]  made its own determination that six specific persons did not comply with certain statutory criteria. It thus undertook the type of decision that traditionally has been left to other branches

DISSENT White

o         The legislative veto is an important and useful mechanism which satisfies the purposes of the presentment and bicameralism clauses: to ensure that any decision receives the agreement of both houses of Congress and the president.

o         This decision will invalidate almost 200 similar legislative veto provisions.

Rules

Rule

o         A House of Congress may not act alone if its act is an exercise of legislative power and does not fall within one of the specific exceptions stated in the Constitution.

Application

o         The Supreme Court finds that the legislative veto is an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers.

Supplement

Essentially legislative act:

o         The real issue in the case was whether the House's issuance of the legislative veto here itself constituted the exercise of legislative power. Not all acts by a house fall into this category, and only the ones that do require presentment and bicameral approval. However, in the Court's view the overruling of the Attorney General's decision on a deportation matter did constitute the exercise of legislative power, since it had the "purpose and effect of altering the legal rights, duties and relations of persons ... outside the legislative branch."

 Consequence:

o         Consequently, Congress could reverse the Attorney General's decision on a deportation matter only by passing a law, in the constitutionally-prescribed manner (passage by both houses, presentment to the President and either signature by him or the overriding of his veto). The fact that the legislative veto mechanism may be a more "efficient" means of controlling administrative action was irrelevant.

Class Notes