Many members of Congress wanted the president to have line-item veto power, or the ability to veto just single line items, or small parts, of a larger bill.
许多国会议员都希望总统拥有单项否决权，或能够对整部法案的单项或一小部分进行否决。
In 1996, Congress passed a bill called the Line Item Veto Act of 1996.
1996年，国会通过了《单项否决权法》，
President Bill Clinton signed it and it became a law.
经比尔·克林顿总统签署成为法律。
With this law, the president could veto individual parts of appropriation bills, or bills about how the government should spend its money.
由于有这样的法律，总统就能否决拨款法案的个别部分，或者政府应该如何花钱的法案。
President Clinton used this power a few times.
克林顿总统使用过几次这样的权力。
However, the members of Congress who didn't like this law thought that it was unconstitutional, or went against the United States' most important legal document, the Constitution.
然而，国会中反对这项法律的议员认为这是违宪的，或者违反了美国最重要的法律文件——宪法。
The issue was presented to the Supreme Court, the most powerful court in the US., which decided that the line-item veto was unconstitutional.
该问题被呈送到了最高法院，美国权力最大的法院，它认为单项否决权是违宪的
The Supreme Court believed that the way the Constitution is written, the president must approve or veto whole bills and not just parts of them.
最高法院判定，依据宪法，总统必须批准或否决整个法案而不是其中的一部分。
So in 1998 the Line Item Veto Act was repealed (or taken away so that it was not a law anymore).
因此，1998年《单项否决权法》被废除了（或被取消了，这样它就不再是法律了）。
President Clinton was the only president who was ever able to make a line-item veto.
克林顿总统是唯一一位使用过单项否决权的总统。
译文为秀哈英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
