U.S. Constitution · Article I, Section 7, Clause 2

Presentment Clause; Veto Clause

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Also known as: Presentment Clause · Veto Clause

Every bill passed by the House and Senate must be presented to the President, who may sign it, veto it by returning it with objections subject to a two-thirds override in each house, or allow it to become law after ten days unless adjournment prevents its return.

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Cited in 1 VFA SI Solution and 4 grades this month.

19 public items cite this provision · 5 in October 2026 (last month: 0)

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The text

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

National Archives transcription (public domain; original spelling and capitalization). archives.gov

SI explainer

What it means

This provision sets the steps for making a federal law. Every bill passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate must be presented to the President before it becomes law. If the President approves, he signs it. If not, he returns it with his objections to the house where it started, that house records the objections in its journal and reconsiders the bill, and the bill can still become law if two-thirds of that house and then two-thirds of the other house vote to pass it, with each member's yes or no vote and name recorded. The provision also covers presidential inaction. If the President does not return the bill within ten days, Sundays excepted, after presentment, it becomes law as if signed. If Congress by adjournment prevents return within that period, the bill does not become law. A bill held without return under those conditions is often called a pocket veto. The requirement applies to every bill that has passed both houses. Under the Court's readings, Congress must use bicameral passage and presentment rather than a one-house veto of executive action, and the President must accept or return the presented bill rather than sign it and then cancel selected parts.

Original meaning

The generation that wrote and ratified the Clause understood the qualified veto as both a defense for the executive and a guard for the community. Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. 73 that the primary inducement for the power was to enable the President to defend his office, and the secondary purpose was to increase the chances against the passing of bad laws through haste, inadvertence, or design. He grounded that need in the tendency of legislatures to encroach on the other branches, arguing that written boundaries alone were not enough and that each department needed constitutional arms for its own defense. The Federal Farmer, writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer No. 14, described a similar function for the partial negative: to impede hasty and intemperate laws, to assist the Senate or people on occasion, and to prevent the legislature from encroaching upon the executive or judiciary. The text sets the procedure the sources discuss: presentment after passage by both houses, signature if approved, return with objections to the originating house, entry of objections on the journal, reconsideration, override by two-thirds recorded yeas and nays in each house, and the ten-day rule with its exception when adjournment prevents return.
  • “The primary inducement to conferring the power in question upon the Executive is, to enable him to defend himself; the secondary one is to increase the chances in favor of the community against the passing of bad laws, through haste, inadvertence, or design.” Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist No. 73 (1788-03-21)
  • “The propensity of the legislative department to intrude upon the rights, and to absorb the powers, of the other departments, has been already suggested and repeated; the insufficiency of a mere parchment delineation of the boundaries of each, has also been remarked upon; and the necessity of furnishing each with constitutional arms for its own defense, has been inferred and proved.” Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist No. 73 (1788-03-21)
  • “The third branch in the legislature may answer three valuable purposes, to impede in their passage hasty and intemperate laws, occasionally to assist the senate or people, and to prevent the legislature from encroaching upon the executive or judiciary.” The Federal Farmer, Letters from the Federal Farmer, No. 14 (on the veto) (1788-01-17)

How the Supreme Court has read it

  1. The Pocket Veto Case, 279 U.S. 655 (1929)

    The Court held that a bill not returned by the President because Congress adjourned at the end of its first session did not become law, because the adjournment prevented its return within the meaning of the Presentment Clause.

  2. INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983)

    The Court held that a one-house legislative veto of executive action violates the Constitution's bicameralism and presentment requirements.

  3. Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998)

    The Court held that the Line Item Veto Act, which allowed the President to cancel individual spending and tax provisions after signing a bill, violated the Presentment Clause.

Two schools of interpretation

Originalist / textualist reading

Originalists and textualists read the Presentment Clause as a fixed and exclusive lawmaking procedure. On this view, the words prescribe a sequence: passage by the House and Senate, presentment to the President, signature, or return with objections followed by recorded reconsideration and two-thirds votes in each house, or enactment after ten days without return except when adjournment prevents return. Because the procedure protects the executive and guards against hasty or ill-considered laws, departures such as lawmaking without presentment or presidential revision of enacted text after signature are not permitted. The Court's holdings invalidating the one-house legislative veto and the Line Item Veto Act are, on this account, applications of that fixed textual procedure.

Living-constitutionalist reading

Living constitutionalists and pragmatists read the Presentment Clause in light of the needs of modern government. On this view, the Clause states central principles of bicameral passage, presentment, presidential approval or veto with written objections, recorded override votes, and the ten-day and adjournment rules, but those principles must operate within a large administrative state with broad delegation and complex omnibus legislation. Supporters of this approach, as reflected in Justice White's dissent described in the case record, defended devices such as the legislative veto as functional accommodations that preserved congressional oversight while allowing delegation. In its strongest fair form, this reading seeks to honor separation of powers and deliberation while allowing practical adjustments to new legislative and administrative conditions.

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Values for America Constitution Explorer, https://www.valuesforamerica.com/constitution (text: National Archives transcription, public domain), Article I, Section 7, Clause 2, https://www.valuesforamerica.com/constitution/article-1/section-7/clause-2

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