Simon Dodd on the Pocket Veto

Simon Dodd is starting an interesting coversation on the pocket veto here.

Here is the set-up:

As has been reported, and as is claimed in his veto message, the President has pocket vetoed H.R. 1585. Wait a moment to let that first word sink in.

As relevant here, the Presentment Clause, Art. I § 7, requires that "[e]very bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; ... [i]f any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law." But Congress isn't a unitary entity; it has two chambers, and although the House of Representatives has adjourned, the Senate has not: it is continuing to meet throughout the break in an effort to prevent recess appointments by Bush. "Textually ... the clause permits the President to exercise a pocket veto any time the Congress as a whole adjourns."¹ So: If one house of Congress has adjourned within the meaning of the Presentment Clause but the other house has not, has "Congress" as a group entity "adjourn[ed]" within the meaning of the clause, creating the predicate conditions for a pocket veto?

Test your intuitions and then go read Simon's answer.