Thanks to all the commenters for their discussion in the comments thread. Commenters raised two items I thought warranted brief follow-up.
First, one commenter said that the ABA had condemned President Obama’s signing statements in a March 12, 2009 item in the ABA Journal. I don’t wish to belabor this subject, because my point in opening my post by saying that the ABA would doubtless soon denounce President Obama’s use of signing statements as (to quote the ABA Task Force Report on Signing Statements) “contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers” was not to focus on the ABA in particular, but simply to illustrate that signing statements no longer provoke the criticism they once did. The goal of my original post was just to note that the President had issued another constitutional signing statement — an event that garnered scant attention from the national media or anyone else.
The only item from the March 12 ABA Journal discussing signing statements of which I am aware is just a short