What Is an Executive Order?

If you’ve been following the beginnings of the transition of leadership from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, you’ve probably heard about a lot of things that President-Elect Obama wants to change from our current leadership to his.  That shouldn’t be a big surprise as that was pretty much his campaign platform.

As you may or may not know, however, is that for real substantive change to occur, it takes a lot of time for legislation to change economic policy, social agendas and domestic and international policy as it has to go through the House and Senate first before it even gets to the President’s desk for his signature.  And if you’re familiar with the old Saturday morning cartoon song, the Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” you might just recall how long that takes.

But what most may not realize, is that there is a way around Congress that a President can use to exercise his authority.  And that’s through the use of Executive Orders.  Executive Orders are typically used to “impose policy and set priorities”, so says Breitbart.com in an article on the transition process between Presidents.

To get the full flavor of how Executive Orders work and how they’ve been used (and manipulated) we need to look at their past.

Executive Orders have been in use since 1789, but only have been catalogued since 1862 when President Lincoln ordered the establishment of military courts in Louisiana when the Union Army took over New Orleans during the Civil War.

Over the years Presidents have used executive orders to fund and de-fund stem cell research (those are more recent examples) as well as desegregate our military (Harry Truman) and Public Schools (Dwight Eisenhower).  Executive Powers have also been used to fight wars as Bill Clinton exercised that right in 1999 in the Kosovo War, though that particular order, as well of the majority of Orders involving military force, have also had authorizing resolutions from Congress.

Executive Powers have also had their dark side.  Franklin Roosevelt used Executive Orders to move Japanese-Americans who lived on the west coast and in western states into internment camps until the end of World War II.  George W. Bush also used Executive Orders to restrict access to the papers of President’s Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.  Though that order has been partially overturned.

You may now be thinking to yourself, doesn’t Congress have the power of checks and balances over the Executive Branch?  That answer is yes, but as usual, there is a caveat.

According to Wikipedia via Harold Hongju Koh’s book, “The National Security Constitution: Sharing Power after the Iran-Contra Affair”:

Congress may overturn an executive order by passing legislation in conflict with it or by refusing to approve funding to enforce it. In the former, the president retains the power to veto such a decision; however, the Congress may override a veto with a two-thirds majority to end an executive order. It has been argued that a Congressional override of an executive order is a nearly impossible event due to the supermajority vote required and the fact that such a vote leaves individual lawmakers very vulnerable to political criticism.

So while the answer is yes, it would appear that the vast majority of Executive Orders go unchallenged.

For the most part, however, Executive Orders are used to advance, a little more quickly, a President’s agenda.

For a full archive of previous Executive Orders, check out the Federal Register of the National Archives.

-Josh Gillespie

Related posts:

1. Executive Orders and the Law
2. Signing Statements and the Presidency

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