Bowsher, Comptroller General of the United States v. Synar, Member of Congress, et al. (478 U.S. 714)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided July 7, 1986 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 478 U.S. 714 · 106 S. Ct. 3181
- Decided
- July 7, 1986
- Term
- October Term 1985
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Burger
- Issue area
- Miscellaneous
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
- Constitutional ruling
- Federal law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Burger delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented by these appeals is whether the assignment by Congress to the Comptroller General of the United States of certain functions under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 violates the doctrine of separation of powers. i — i a> On December 12, 1985, the President signed into law the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, Pub. L. 99-177, 99 Stat. 1038, 2 U. S. C. §901 et seq. (1982 ed., Supp. Ill), popularly known as the “Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act.” The purpose of the Act is to eliminate the federal budget deficit. To that end, the Act sets a “maximum deficit amount” for federal spending for each of fiscal years 1986 through 1991. The size of that maximum deficit amount progressively reduces to zero in fiscal year 1991. If in any fiscal year the federal budget deficit exceeds the maximum deficit amount by more than a specified sum, the Act requires across-the-board cuts in federal spending to reach the targeted deficit level, with half of the cuts made to defense programs and the other half made to nondefense programs. The Act exempts certain priority programs from these cuts. § 255. These “automatic” reductions are accomplished through a rather complicated procedure, spelled out in §251, the so-called “reporting provisions” of the Act. Each year, the…
Excerpt of a 153,941-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.