Pocket Veto

Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the President 10 days, Sundays excepted, to sign or veto a bill. If the President does neither, the bill becomes law without a signature, unless Congress by its adjournment prevents its return, in which case the bill does not become law. That second outcome is the pocket veto, so called because the President is said to keep the bill in his pocket. James Madison used the first pocket veto in 1812, and Franklin Roosevelt used the most, 263.

Because a regular veto is returned to Congress with the President's objections, Congress can override it by a two-thirds vote in each chamber, but a pocket veto leaves nothing to override, and Congress must pass the bill again in a new session. The key question is what kind of adjournment prevents return. In the Pocket Veto Case of 1929 the Supreme Court upheld a pocket veto during a long adjournment between sessions, while in Wright v. United States in 1938 it held that a short Senate recess did not prevent return when the Senate's officers could receive the bill.

Presidents and Congress have disputed whether pocket vetoes are possible during recesses within a session or when Congress appoints officers to receive messages, and lower courts held in the 1970s that intrasession pocket vetoes were improper. Congress now commonly holds pro forma sessions during breaks, partly to prevent pocket vetoes and recess appointments, and some presidents have issued protective returns, both pocket vetoing a bill and returning it with objections. Supporters of the pocket veto say it respects the Constitution's text, while critics say presidents have used it to avoid an override vote Congress would have won.