pocket veto

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
pocket veto
    n 1: indirect veto of legislation by refusing to sign it
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Pocket veto \Pocket veto\
   The retention by the President of the United States of a bill
   unsigned so that it does not become a law, in virtue of the
   following constitutional provision (--Const. Art. I., sec. 7,
   cl. 2): "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."
   Also, an analogous retention of a bill by a State governor.
   [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
    

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