Immigration and Naturalization Service v Chadha

Immigration and Naturalization Service v Chadha is a 1983 decision of the United States Supreme Court that struck down the legislative veto as unconstitutional. Federal immigration law allowed either single house of Congress to override an executive branch decision, made through the Immigration and Naturalization Service, to suspend the deportation of a named individual, in this case Jagdish Rai Chadha. The Court held that this one-house legislative veto was legislative in effect because it altered the legal rights of a person outside the legislative branch, and so had to satisfy the Constitutions requirements of passage by both houses of Congress and presentment to the President, which it did not. The ruling invalidated the legislative veto provisions embedded in dozens of other federal statutes and remains a central case on the separation of powers between Congress and the executive branch.