[x-pubpol] USA: White House petition to repeal ACTA

[Joly MacFie]

A (poorly worded IMO) White House petition <http://bit.ly/y0CWWa> requests
the United States to renege on its signing of the ACTA agreement, on the
basis that as an “executive agreement” it is unconstitutional.

Mike Masnick of Techdirt notes
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120124/14071517529/new-petition-asks-white-house-to-submit-acta-to-senate-ratification.shtml>
:

 The law is clear that the only things that can be covered by executive
agreements are things that involve items that are solely under the
President’s mandate. That is, you can’t sign an executive agreement that
impacts the things Congress has control over. But here’s the thing:
intellectual property, in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, is an
issue given to Congress, not the President. Thus, there’s a pretty strong
argument that the president legally cannot sign any intellectual property
agreements as an executive agreement and, instead, must submit them to the
Senate.

The petition has already exceeded the 25k signatories required to gain a
response from the Obama administration.

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