I first brought this up in
Drummer's diary
Since then I've done just a little digging and I believe there is a case to be made that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 should be stuck down as having been pocket vetoed!
I hope this makes for a legit first diary. If not I'll remove it.
UPDATE: I suppose this is what happens when one gets a little too excited about a first diary. Had I taken a little more time I would have found the info about when the clock starts ticking - when presented to the White House, and when this bill was actually presented - Oct 10. Looks like W. got it in with a few days to spare.
Per the United State's Senate website
dictionary a pocket veto is defined as:
pocket veto - The Constitution grants the President 10 days to review a measure passed by the Congress. If the President has not signed the bill after 10 days, it becomes law without his signature. However, if Congress adjourns during the 10-day period, the bill does not become law.
The law passed the House on Spetember 27, 2006 and was forwarded to the Senate where it passed on September 28, 2006.
Congress adjourned on Friday, September 29! As I understand this the law needed to be signed by October 8 or 9. If "days" in the pocket veto definition excludes weekends that still only pushes the signing window out to October 13 or 16 making today one day too late!
No matter how you slice it something smells very fishy here. I suppose the White House could have been distracted by the Foley scandal and forgot about the signing, but I doubt it. My fear is that there is some other sort of administrative power grab being attempted here that we are just failing to discern.
At any rate, I think this deserves some VERY close attention by Constitutional law experts if not the Judiciary itself.