While reading a French tourbook about California ('le Petit Futé',
p.29 2004 edition), it was mentioned in the politics section that the
President of the United States had many seemingly 'royal' rights such
as the right to censure the Congress, to grace death sentenced
prisoners and "le droit de cuissage" (???), which I unfortunately
don't know how to translate in English. I would like to know what was
meant by "droit de cuissage" according to your knowledge of the US
President's rights... As far as I know, the meaning of "droit de
cuissage" in French is the right that lords in the Middle Ages had
supposedly to sleep the first night with the newly wed wives of their
loyal subjects(!). It seems that this is a legend (see
http://www.yrub.com/histoire/mensongecuissage.htm or
http://www.zetetique.ldh.org/cuissage.html), but that's the only
meaning I know anyway. I doubt that the president of the USA has this
right, though! So what is it, really?

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Clarification of Question by lindycogito-ga on 22 Jul 2004 18:50 PDT

I'm starting to see that my question was harder than I thought as
there is an element of text interpretation which is not necessarily
obvious, especially if you don't have the source... If I was looking
for a serious answer, I guess that I should raise the price, but this
was just a question out of a funny curiosity... ;o)

To help the curious, here is the sentence from the book (p.29):
"Enfin le président jouit de certains droits plus ou moins 'régaliens'
comme le droit de censurer le Congrès, le droit de grâce pour les
condamnées à la peine capitale, le droit de cuissage, mais pas le
droit à la vie privée..."

The serious rights mentioned just before the 'droit de cuissage' makes
me thing that 'droit de cuissage' should also be a serious right,
though the general tone of the book (as the clin d'oeil made about the
privacy right), could also imply that this was a joke about Bill
Clinton and cie... I have sent an email inquiry to petitfute.com . If
they reply, I'll post back the conclusion. But feel free to poke in
more of your answers/comments... :o)

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Clarification of Question by lindycogito-ga on 23 Jul 2004 04:20 PDT

All right, I have always been a bit gullible... I like to think that's
because I'm open minded and open to alternatives, but anyway,
lepetitefute.com answered my email and it seems it was indeed just
another jest (a 'boutade').

I hope that this has been at least entertaining for some! ;o)

Cheers,

LindyCogito

Bill Clinton evidently was so blessed as was JFK. 

It's not a new invention.

Reputedly, King George V of England really enjoyed his Royal
privileges and he wasn't the only one.

Droit de Cuissage (sometimes called Droit monseigneur) was indeed
reputed to be the right of noble men to sleep with new brides on their
wedding night (this however is false) however the 'litteral'
translation of 'Droit de Cuissage' is Right of Passage , based upon
the text you provide it seems they refer to his right to be re-elected
but i could be mistaken there , it could also mean he has the right to
force a bill through congress , Since I am not american I leave the
intrepretation of this to somebody who knows a lot more of the
american constitution then I do

The French experssion likely has a litteral meaning and a somewhat
different meaning in common slang. The author of the tour book was
either seriously miss-informed and/or is being sarcastic. None of
these are rights of the president and Bill Clinton came close to being
impeached for womenizing = adultery. He likely would have been
impeached except many of the members of the House of Representatives
were likely guilty of adultery and other crimes. The president of the
USA has free speech like the rest of us, so he can critisize congress
just as the opposition party critisizes the president. Like most
contries the rich and powerful can rarely be convicted in court for
saying false things about another person or other crimes. The
president does have the authority to pardon both the guilty and the
possibly guilty. I believe most heads of state have this authority. 
Neil

I wonder whether the "droit de cuissage" remark may have been
referring to former President Bill Clinton, and his way with the
ladies. ;-)

An idle thought: maybe our foul-mouthed Veep, Dick Cheney, heard about
this, and thought it referred to "cussage."

Pink, You've come up with the right answer, as usual.

Of course, apart from your goodself, very few Americans and even fewer
Okies understand a word of French.

I recall once ordering a rather good bottle of French red wine in a
swish American restuarant and it arrived chilled.

I said to the waiter, 'Hey you don't chill red wine.'

He said, 'I know that and you know that ... But that's how they serve it in here'.

Vive la difference!