自動筆簽法案 愛國法三項條款 autopen on Patriot Act Signing

自動筆簽法案 歐巴馬破天荒

美聯社華沙28日電

May 29, 2011 06:00 AM | 600 次 | 0  | 0  |  | 

歐巴馬總統27日首次使用「自動筆」簽署法案，延長愛國者法的效期。圖為Damilic公司製造的「自動筆」。(歐新社)

白宮顛覆公民課教授的知識，顯示國會通過的法案不需總統親筆簽字才能生效，用機器代簽即可。

國會26日趕在歐巴馬總統非常重視的愛國法三項條款當天午夜期滿失效前予以延長，當時歐巴馬遠在法國參加八大工業國峰會。

白宮原來準備依照傳統，由幕僚人員搭機趕到法國，把國會通過的法案呈交總統簽字。但是，國會遲遲才完成表決程序，時間已經來不及。

人在巴黎的歐巴馬於當地時間清晨5時45分被喚醒，趕在最後15分鐘匆匆看過法案內容，並授權幕僚使用自動筆(autopen)代為簽署，創下美國歷史上破天荒的先例。

白宮發言人說，如不及時簽署這項法案，將嚴重危害國家安全，因此總統指示使用自動筆簽字。

白宮幾十年前就開始用自動筆為總統每年寄送的幾百萬張聖誕卡簽字，政治委員會也藉此以總統的名義募款。

不過，據媒體所知，這是總統首次授權用自動筆簽署法案，並引起這樣做是否合法的質疑。

美國憲法第一章第七條規定，國會參眾兩院通過的法案，必須提交總統核准簽字，才能成為法律。

白宮官員說，司法部2005年的備忘錄，斷定「總統簽署法案不必親筆簽名」，而歐巴馬據此授權使用自動筆簽字。

Patriot Act Signing Just the Latest in Autopen Infamy

• By Seth Abramovitch, Gawker.com  
• May 27, 2011  |  
• 2:49 pm  |  
• Categories: Miscellaneous

Minutes before midnight, after a landslide House vote of 250-153, President Obama signed legislation backing a four-year extension on the controversial USA PATRIOT Act. (Did you know that’s an acronymfor Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism? Now you do.) Yay, habeas corpus denials, warrantless searches and carte blanche wiretapping! Four more years! Four more years!

Because the president was in France, he was required to sign it using an autopen machine: that rare and wonderful device favored by politicians, sports stars and celebrities, that can mechanically reproduce the act of signing one’s autograph. (See one in action here!)

Since first being patented in the U.S. in 1804 by English inventor John Isaac Hawkins, the autopen has scribbled its way into American history — and infamy — over and over again.

Some highlights:

• 1945: Harry Truman is thought to have been the first sitting president to use the autopen with any regularity. You can find examples, like this autopen-signed thank-you note, for sale on eBay.
• 1961: President Kennedy uses the autopen for nearly any signature that wasn’t of significance. To learn more, check out Charles Hamilton’s 1965 book, The Robot That Helped to Make a President, the “most in-depth reference guide for the different proxy signatures produced by the autopen machines used by President John F. Kennedy.”
• 1988: Vice President Dan Quayle is confronted by ABC’s Sam Donaldson about a letter he sent to a judge asking for GOP fundraiser Stephen Goot, convicted on racketeering charges in his role in fixing DUIs, to be moved to a cushier prison. Quayle pleaded the “autopen defense,” saying a staffer must have signed it without his knowledge. It’s the second time he uses that excuse.
• 1996: In his 2004 book My Life, Bill Clinton recalls: “In 1996, the children of one of my father’s sisters came for the first time to our annual family Christmas party at the White House and brought me a gift: the condolence letter my aunt had received from her congressman, the great Sam Rayburn, after my father died. It’s just a short form letter and appears to have been signed with the autopen of the day, but I hugged that letter with all the glee of a six-year-old boy getting his first train set from Santa Claus.”
• 2004: Then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld finds himself at the center of a White House PR nightmare, when it comes out that he’d used an autopen to sign his name to condolence letters sent to relatives of soldiers sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. At first denying it, Rumsfeld then admitted, “While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter.”
• [AP]

Photo: US Government employees operate a check-signing machine. Wikimedia commons.