A signing ceremony is a ceremony in which a bill passed by a legislature is signed (approved) by an executive, thus becoming a law.
Modern-day signing ceremonies are derived from ceremonies that occurred when the British monarch gave Royal Assent to acts of Parliament. Signing ceremonies are an aspect of American politics.
Signing ceremonies may be performed by state governors upon signing an act of the state legislature into law or may be performed by the President of the United States upon signing an act of Congress into law. The President often invites leaders from the Congress that were instrumental in the passage of the bill as well as interested members of the community. One practice is to use several pens and honor individuals by giving them the pens used in the signing ceremony.
Signing ceremonies are associated with acts that are viewed as legislative triumphs for the executive. Conversely, laws that are passed reluctantly or are controversial are often signed into law quietly and privately without any public ceremony.
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Famous quotes containing the word ceremony:
“That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead-drunk in the street, carried to the duke’s house, washed and dressed and laid in the duke’s bed, and, on his waking, treated with all obsequious ceremony like the duke, and assured that he had been insane, owes its popularity to the fact that it symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason and finds himself a true prince.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)