See below excellent analysis from Chuck Cooper--former Reagan OLC head, legendary Supreme Court practitioner who successfully argued (among other cases) the line item veto case (Clinton v City of New York), and a good friend.
— James Burnham (@BurnhamDC) September 9, 2025
Thanks, too, Chuck for your kind words! https://t.co/oVQqlFmdnf
TLDR, concluding graf:
Quote:
The Court specifically rejected the notion that the power to cancel an item of appropriation was indistinguishable from the President's "traditional authority to decline to spend appropriated funds," emphasizing that the problem with the Line Item Veto Act was that it gave the President "the unilateral power to change the text of duly enacted statutes."
But here, the presidential act of requesting congressional rescission of spending authority obviously does not change the text of an appropriation act. Nor is any lapse of spending authority the result of the President's unilateral action; it is the result of the joint action of the President's request for rescission and the Congress's failure to act on the request within the time limit that Congress has set by law for itself.
Pocket rescissions under the ICA are constitutional, and the Court should grant Solicitor General Sauer's request for an emergency stay of the district court's injunction.
So, congress gave themselves 45 days to act (once the request was made), they didn't, and that means Trump/America should win. I didn't realize that was part of the statute. Good news/sounds right to me.