Court dismisses suit against spending-cut bill

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday dismissed a consumer group's lawsuit against a new law cutting domestic spending programs by $39 billion.

Handing a victory to the Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates dismissed the suit filed in March by the nonprofit group Public Citizen.

"The court concludes that the plaintiff's challenge to the DRA (Deficit-Reduction Act) must fail," Bates wrote. The measure, which will trim $39 billion in federal spending over five years, became law in February.

Public Citizen, which said it will appeal the decision, challenged the constitutionality of the law after it was discovered that a clerical error caused the two chambers to pass bills that were not identical.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the president can sign a bill into law only after both chambers of Congress pass the same measure. In this case, President Bush signed the version only passed by the Senate.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=13170250&src=rss/ElectionCoverage

[PSPS]

1. In this era of "signing statements," what difference does it make?

[Rose Siding]

2. One article explained that every citizen who's affected by the cuts,

would have standing in a law suit over this bill. Either the courts have to address it or the gops will have to try to legislate their way out of it.

[Eric J in MN]

3. No accountablity. NT

NT

[ShockediSay]

4. Iraqis had such a hard time writing a constitution, they shudda taken ours

we don't use it

(Robin Williams in a recent interview)