<P> A pocket veto occurs when a bill fails to become law because the president does not sign the bill and cannot return the bill to Congress within a 10 - day period because Congress is not in session . Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution states: </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> The Constitution limits the president's period for decision on whether to sign or return any legislation to ten days (not including Sundays) while the United States Congress is in session . A return veto happens when the president sends a bill, along with his objections, back to the house of Congress from which it originated . Congress can override the veto by a two - thirds vote of both chambers, whereupon the bill becomes law . If Congress prevents the bill's return by being adjourned during the 10 - day period, and the president does not sign the bill, a "pocket veto" occurs and the bill does not become law . Congress can adjourn and designate an agent to receive veto messages and other communications so that a pocket veto cannot happen, an action Congresses have routinely taken for decades . If a bill is pocket vetoed while Congress is out of session, the only way for Congress to circumvent the pocket veto is to reintroduce the legislation as a new bill, pass it through both chambers, and present it to the President again for signature . On the other hand, Congress may override a regular veto without introducing new legislation through the process described in the U.S. Constitution . James Madison became the first president to use the pocket veto in 1812 . </P> <P> Courts have never fully clarified when an adjournment by Congress would "prevent" the president from returning a vetoed bill . Some presidents have interpreted the Constitution to restrict the pocket veto to the adjournment sine die of Congress at the end of the second session of the two - year congressional term, while others interpreted it to allow intersession and intrasession pocket vetoes . In 1929, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Pocket Veto Case that a bill had to be returned to the chamber while it is in session and capable of work . While upholding President Calvin Coolidge's pocket veto, the court said that the "determinative question is not whether it is a final adjournment of Congress or an interim adjournment but whether it is one that' prevents' the President from returning the bill". In 1938, the Supreme Court reversed itself in part in Wright v. U.S., ruling that Congress could designate agents on its behalf to receive veto messages when it was not in session, saying that the Constitution "does not define what shall constitute a return of a bill or deny the use of appropriate agencies in effecting the return". A three - day recess of the Senate was considered a short enough time that the Senate could still act with "reasonable promptitude" on the veto . However, a five - month adjournment would be a long enough period to enable a pocket veto . Within those constraints, there still exists some ambiguity . Presidents have been reluctant to pursue disputed pocket vetoes to the Supreme Court for fear of an adverse ruling that would serve as a precedent in future cases . </P>

When may the president of the united states exercise a pocket veto
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