‘Executive order’ is a term most students have heard recently.
Since January 20, U.S. President Donald Trump has issued more than 60 executive orders and that number may grow.
His orders have related to diversity, equality, inclusion, paper straws, and the southern border. But what is an executive order?
Laura Haske, ECC’s Associate Professor II – Paralegal, explains.
“Executive orders are directions from the president to different administrative agencies to tell them how to enforce the laws,” Haske said.
Examples of government administrative agencies include the Social Security Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Haske explained that the executive orders are “like law to those agencies.”
“If you get an order from the president, and it’s issued to you, and you’re in one of those agencies that he’s directing, it’s a law to you,” Haske said.
The power to issue executive orders is implied by the President’s duties, which are set out in Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
Haske explained that articles cover three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. The U.S. president falls within the executive branch.
“One of the jobs of the President is to take the laws that we have and make sure they are getting done,” she said. “In some ways, the executive branch is like the police,” meaning they enforce laws.
She explains that executive orders date back to 1789 and is a power held by U.S. presidents.
According to The American Presidency Project, presidential executive orders were less than 100 per term until the 18th president, Ulysses Grant, who served from 1869 to 1877. Grant issued 217 executive orders. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the most executive orders, 3,721, but he also served the longest term with a dozen years.
“I first started to hear about executive orders becoming kind of a big thing under President Obama,” Haske said. “If you think about DACA [Deferred Actions of Children Arrivals], the dreamers, like all those dreamer protections, they weren’t created by Congress. Obama directed them through an executive order.”
Throughout history, presidents have used executive orders in various ways.
“It’s not like President Trump is doing something that other presidents haven’t done before,” Haske said. “The process itself is not new.”
“We’re hearing about it now because of the type of action that he’s taking, but not because executive orders are new.”
She added, “probably the other thing that maybe people don’t realize is that the check and balance on executive orders is through the court system.”
Courts can deem executive orders as unconstitutional.
“We’re already seeing that with Trump with the birthright citizenship issue,” Haske said. “If he does more than the Constitution allows him to do, the check on that is through the court system.”
A typical executive order would have five parts which is the heading, title, introduction, body and the president’s signature. According to Haske, she mentions the three important parts of the executive order.
“It has a number, it has a date, it has a topic.” Haske mentioned.
Although executive orders are being talked about recently, they have been passed down by different U.S. presidents.
“It’s not new. We’re hearing about it now because of the type of action that he’s taking. They’ve been around a long time. Every president has used them and it’s part of their power under the Constitution.” Haske said.
Hopefully, students will learn more about executive orders as time goes on but it’s a topic that future students will talk about for years to come.
