Veto legislation
Every bill Congress passes crosses the President's desk, and the President can say no. The veto makes the presidency a player in all lawmaking: even the threat of one shapes bills long before they pass.
Read the clause itself, verbatim and in plain language, in the in-app Constitution.
The President
How it works in practice
Within ten days (Sundays excepted) the President signs, vetoes with a message of objections, or does nothing, which enacts the bill if Congress is in session and kills it (the pocket vetoIf Congress adjourns during the President's 10-day window so the bill cannot be returned, presidential inaction kills it instead of enacting it, and there is nothing to override.Read the full definition (opens a new tab)) if Congress has adjourned and prevented its return. There is no line-item vetoThe power to strike individual provisions from a bill while signing the rest. Most governors have it; the President does not.Read the full definition (opens a new tab): the Supreme CourtThe only court the Constitution itself creates. Nine Justices, life tenure, and near-total control over which cases they hear.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) struck the 1996 attempt (Clinton v. City of New York), so the choice is the whole bill or nothing.
Constitution Annotated, Veto Power
Terms to know: vetoThe President's refusal to sign a measure, returning it to Congress with objections. Congress can override with two-thirds of both chambers.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) · pocket vetoIf Congress adjourns during the President's 10-day window so the bill cannot be returned, presidential inaction kills it instead of enacting it, and there is nothing to override.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) · overrideCongress enacting a measure over the President's veto, which takes a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate.Read the full definition (opens a new tab)