INS v. Chadha

In INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 103 S.Ct. 2764, 77 L.Ed.2d 317 (1983), the INS, the executive agency charged with enforcing the immigration laws, agreed with Chadha that the legislative veto authorized by section 244(c)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1254(c)(2) (1982), was unconstitutional. 103 S.Ct. at 2772. Agreeing that under these circumstances the court of appeals had rightly allowed both Houses of Congress to intervene, the Court said: "We have long held that Congress is the proper party to defend the validity of a statute when an agency of government, as a defendant charged with enforcing the statute, agrees with plaintiffs that the statute is inapplicable or unconstitutional. See Cheng Fan Kwok v. INS, 392 U.S. 206, 210 n. 9 88 S.Ct. 1970, 1973 n. 9, 20 L.Ed.2d 1037 (1968) ; United States v. Lovett, 328 U.S. 303 66 S.Ct. 1073, 90 L.Ed. 1252 (1946)." 103 S.Ct. at 2778. There was, in Chadha as in the cases the Court cited, an aggrieved individual who sought relief that ran only against the Executive Branch: that satisfied the injury-in-fact, causation, and redressability requirements of article III. Indeed, the Court specifically held that "prior to Congress' intervention, there was adequate Art. III adverseness even though the only parties were the INS and Chadha." Id. Although the INS agreed that the statute requiring it to deport Chadha was unconstitutional, but for the court of appeals' ruling to that effect, the INS would have deported Chadha. Id. INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983), is an example of the Court's refusal to apply a balancing test to assess the validity of an enactment which interferes with a power that the Constitution, in express terms, vests within the exclusive control of the President. In Chadha, the Court struck down a legislative veto provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act on the ground, inter alia, that it violated the explicit constitutional requirement that all legislation be presented to the President for his signature before becoming law. Id., at 946-948, 957-959. In so holding, the Court did not ask whether the "overriding need to promote objectives within the constitutional authority of Congress" justified this intrusion upon the Executive's prerogative, but rather stated that the lawmaking process must adhere in strict fashion to the "explicit and unambiguous provisions of the Constitution which prescribe and define the respective functions of the Congress and of the Executive in the legislative process." Id., at 945.