Originally Posted by jlammy
Exactly. Congress can pass it, but if the Supreme Court rejects it then it goes to the chopper. From what I understand, Congress will pass a law, the President will review and sign it to approve, but all that can be stopped if the courts decided that the law is unconstitutional.
The judiciary in the United States is the only branch of government with the equivalent of "line item veto." The courts in the United States can strike a particular provision of a law while leaving most of it intact.
This can render a part of a written law unenforceable, even if Congress refuses to change the law.
Presidents of the United States have always been jealous of the Queen's power to cross out individual words, sentences or sections of a bill before she signs it; however, if we made it possible for the President to do that same thing, it's patently clear that US Presidents would engage in the pursuit fairly frequently and with political prejudice. The Queen almost never does it, and when she does it's already clear to Parliament and the society that a mistake was made w/the provision she's crossing out.
The governor of Virginia has this power, by the way, inherited from the days of the royal governors.