Zack_M_Davis comments on Backward Reasoning Over Decision Trees - Less Wrong
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Well, yes. The precise definition of line-item is an essential issue for implementing a "line-item" veto. It's different in different jurisdictions, and I don't know what the federal definition was.
In Wisconsin, the veto was apparently letter by letter - so a patient governor (or staffer) could totally change a provision by hunting for the appropriate letters. Funding the arts via a bill intended to provide farm aid and suchlike. (How that complies with the concept of separation of powers boggles my mind, but that's policy, not letter of the law).
It gets worse (better?): in a computerized world, patience is irrelevant. Suppose we have a letter-item veto on Title I of the U. S. Code, and we think it would be better if, instead of all those boring "general provisions" and "rules of construction", this document codified into law P. C. Hodgell's maxim that "That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be." Then, casting a spell like this---
---we learn that all we have to do is veto all characters except the fourth, 408th, 409th, 502nd, 510th, 705th, 894th, 895th, 936th, (more numbers redacted ...), and 8786th.
And here's the generalized lesson =)