1 Two leading constitutional-law experts said President Bush doesn't have the legal authority to exercise a line-item veto.
2 Professors Philip Kurland of the University of Chicago and Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School said any effort by President Bush to claim authority for a line-item veto would contradict the text of the Constitution and the intent of its authors, as well as the views of previous presidents.
3 A line-item veto is a procedure that would allow a president to veto part of a big congressional spending bill without having to scuttle the entire measure.
4 Mr. Bush has said he would like to be able to use this procedure.
5 A White House spokesman said last week that the president is considering declaring that the Constitution implicitly gives him the authority for a line-item veto to provoke a test case.
6 But the two legal experts, responding to an inquiry by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.), wrote in a joint letter that the president 'lacks the constitutional authority to exercise a line-item veto.' The two professors represent different ends of the political spectrum -- Mr. Kurland is a conservative and Mr. Tribe is a liberal.
7 The two professors said the Constitution authorizes the president to veto entire bills, not partial measures.
8 Moreover, they said the first appropriations bill passed 200 years ago covered many different items, and there was no discussion of a line-item veto.
9 They also said that more than a dozen presidents have called for line-item veto authority since the Civil War, and 'all have shared the view that such lawmaking power is beyond the reach' of the president.
10 Sen. Kennedy said in a separate statement that he supports legislation to give the president line-item veto power, but that it would be a 'reckless course of action' for President Bush to claim the authority without congressional approval.

A White House spokesman said last week that the president is considering declaring that the Constitution implicitly gives him the authority for a line - item veto to provoke a test case .
A White House spokesman
Which White House spokesman?