2.15 Policy and Branches of Government

The United States government faced significant challenges during the Great Depression and World War II. Congress responded by applying the legislative veto, a concept of governance initially rejected during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The legislative veto allows Congress to grant and retract specific powers to the president through a simple majority vote.

The legislative veto faced legal pushback from the Executive Branch beginning in the 1960s, when the House of Representatives began overriding the attorney general’s decisions regarding the deportation of stateless immigrants. The case made its way to the Supreme Court as Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha (1983).

The Supreme Court ruled that the legislative veto was unconstitutional. Congress could not interfere with an executive agency’s operations in such a way. Although banned at the federal level, some states still permit the legislative veto.