Executive order
An Executive Order ( German " Implementing " ) is a decree by the President of the United States or a governor of a US state . Presidents have issued executive orders since 1789. Neither the constitution nor federal law contains any provisions on executive orders. They are therefore an element of informal legal practice. Depending on their regulatory content and addressees, they correspond to the generally binding legal ordinances or internal administrative decrees , regulations or guidelines known in the German-speaking legal area , which, unlike the executive orders, require an explicit formal or constitutional authorization within the framework of the parliamentary system of government .
Typically, executive orders are issued by the President for other administrative officials. Since the president has ultimate authority within the executive branch, executive orders are binding on all officials within that branch of government. Some executive orders were also enacted as a result of certain federal laws that give the president discretion .
Other executive orders contain directives and presidential decrees on (internal) security and defense .
The Presidential Proclamations are very similar to Executive Orders .
list
| president | number | per year | Governance years |
from No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Washington | 8th | 1.0 | 7.85 | - |
| John Adams | 1 | 0.3 | 4.00 | - |
| Thomas Jefferson | 4th | 0.5 | 8.00 | - |
| James Madison | 1 | 0.1 | 8.00 | - |
| James Monroe | 1 | 0.1 | 8.00 | - |
| John Quincy Adams | 3 | 0.8 | 4.00 | - |
| Andrew Jackson | 12 | 1.5 | 8.00 | - |
| Martin van Buren | 10 | 2.5 | 4.00 | - |
| William Henry Harrison | 0 | 0.0 | 0.08 | - |
| John Tyler | 17th | 4.3 | 3.92 | - |
| James K. Polk | 18th | 4.5 | 4.00 | - |
| Zachary Taylor | 5 | 3.7 | 1.35 | - |
| Millard Fillmore | 12 | 4.5 | 2.65 | - |
| Franklin Pierce | 35 | 8.8 | 4.00 | - |
| James Buchanan | 16 | 4.0 | 4.00 | - |
| Abraham Lincoln | 48 | 11.7 | 4.12 | 1 |
| Andrew Johnson | 79 | 20.3 | 3.89 | 3 |
| Ulysses S. Grant | 217 | 27.1 | 8.00 | 8th |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | 92 | 23.0 | 4.00 | - |
| James Garfield | 6th | 10.9 | 0.55 | - |
| Chester Arthur | 96 | 27.7 | 3.46 | 21st |
| Grover Cleveland - I. | 113 | 28.3 | 4.00 | 23-1 |
| Benjamin Harrison | 143 | 35.8 | 4.00 | 28 |
| Grover Cleveland - II | 140 | 35.0 | 4.00 | 30th |
| William McKinley | 185 | 40.8 | 4.53 | 97 |
| Theodore Roosevelt | 1081 | 144.7 | 7.47 | 141 |
| William Howard Taft | 724 | 181.0 | 4.00 | 1051 |
| Woodrow Wilson | 1803 | 225.4 | 8.00 | 1744 |
| Warren G. Harding | 522 | 216.6 | 2.41 | 3416 |
| Calvin Coolidge | 1203 | 215.2 | 5.59 | 3885-A |
| Herbert Hoover | 968 | 242.0 | 4.00 | 5075 |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | 3721 | 307.0 | 12.12 | 6071 |
| Harry S. Truman | 907 | 116.6 | 7.78 | 9538 |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | 484 | 60.5 | 8.00 | 10432 |
| John F. Kennedy | 214 | 75.4 | 2.84 | 10914 |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | 325 | 62.9 | 5.17 | 11128 |
| Richard Nixon | 346 | 62.3 | 5.55 | 11452 |
| Gerald R. Ford | 169 | 69.0 | 2.45 | 11798 |
| Jimmy Carter | 320 | 80.0 | 4.00 | 11967 |
| Ronald Reagan | 381 | 47.6 | 8.00 | 12287 |
| George HW Bush | 166 | 41.5 | 4.00 | 12668 |
| Bill Clinton | 364 | 45.5 | 8.00 | 12834 |
| George W. Bush | 291 | 36.4 | 8.00 | 13198 |
| Barack Obama | 276 | 34.5 | 8.00 | 13489 |
| Donald Trump | 161 | 48.1 | 3.35 | 13765 |
| As of May 28, 2020 | ||||
history
Until the beginning of the 20th century, executive orders were mostly unofficial, undocumented and only relevant for the internal work of some federal agencies. In the early 20th century, the State Department set up a system for numbering all executive orders, which also applies backwards to Abraham Lincoln . Today only national security directives are kept secret.
Until 1952 there were no guidelines as to what the president could determine by means of an executive order. In the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer the Supreme Court ruled that Harry S. Truman's Executive Order No. 10340, which was to put all steel mills under federal control, was invalid. The court held that executive orders cannot create new law, but are only allowed to explain existing laws or constitutional provisions. Presidents have since described in their executive orders exactly under which laws they were enacted.
A clear distinction must be made between executive orders and executive agreements that the US President enacts (alone or with the approval of the House of Representatives, depending on the situation, which is often controversial) and which only concern international contracts.
Executive Orders (selection)
- 1941, Franklin Roosevelt , 8802 : Fair Employment Act
- 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 9066 : Internment of Japanese Americans in camps called War Relocation Centers .
- 1948, Harry Truman , 9981 : End of racial segregation in the US armed forces
- 1981, Ronald Reagan , 12333 : Extending the Powers and Responsibilities of the Intelligence Community (National Intelligence Services)
- 2001, George W. Bush , 13224 : “Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism” (“Blocking property and prohibiting transactions with persons who commit, threaten to commit or support terrorism ")
- 2008, George W. Bush , 13470 : Extension of the powers of the " Director of National Intelligence " (director of the national intelligence services)
- 2017, Donald Trump , 13769 : "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States" ("Protecting the Nation from the Entry of Foreign Terrorists into the United States")
criticism
Critics have accused presidents of abusing executive orders, using them to legislate without the approval of Congress, or using them to reinterpret existing laws outside of their original framework. A number of major legal changes were created by executive orders, such as the racial integration in the American military by Truman. The criticism is not aimed at the results of the relevant decrees, but at the way in which they came about.
A particularly noteworthy example was Executive Order No. 9066, in which Franklin D. Roosevelt directed the military to remove certain civil groups from military zones; here specifically Americans of German or Japanese descent were meant. The decree also gave General John DeWitt the authority to intern Japanese Americans on the West Coast for the duration of World War II . 11,000 Americans of German descent were also relocated to temporary camps.
Presidents have also used executive orders for the purpose of military intervention: In 1999, for example, Bill Clinton ordered American soldiers to be deployed in Kosovo by means of an executive order. However, in all of these cases the executive orders were based on supportive decisions by Congress. The extent to which the president, by his own authority, may use the military without the approval of Congress remains an unresolved issue of American constitutional reality.
The currently most well-known, but also controversial presidential directive is Executive Order No. 13224 ; since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it has been regulating the United States' worldwide approach against terrorist organizations and their activists.
Court cases
The first cases in which executive orders were challenged in court date back to 1935. This was later followed by the aforementioned Truman edict and a 1996 Clinton executive order attempting to exclude all firms from government contracts that hired scabs.
In addition to the courts, Congress can also override executive orders by passing new laws or by failing to provide funding to carry out the edict. The President can reject such laws with his veto , but this can be finally overruled by Congress with a two-thirds majority .
The Executive Order 13769 "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States" of President Trump of January 27, 2017 on the admission of people from certain countries with a predominantly Muslim population into the United States , was in the days after her The decree of several federal district courts was weakened and was initially suspended in the second instance in San Francisco. It was replaced by Executive Order 13780 .
Executive Orders in the States
As head of the executive branch of state also adopted governors of individual states Executive Orders.
See also
literature
- Dino P. Christenson, Douglas L Kriner: The Myth of the Imperial Presidency: How Public Opinion Checks the Unilateral Executive. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2020, ISBN 978-0-226-70436-4 .
- Michelle Belco, Brandon Rottinghaus: The Dual Executive. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto 2017, ISBN 978-0-8047-9997-3 .
- Phillip J. Cooper: By Order of the President: The Use and Abuse of Executive Direct Action. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence 2014, ISBN 978-0-7006-2012-8 .
- Ryan J. Barilleaux, Christopher S. Kelley (Eds.): Unitary Executive and the Modern Presidency. Texas A&M University Press, College Station 2010, ISBN 978-1-60344-378-4 .
Web links
- Archive of presidential executive orders. archives.gov (English)
- Jens Schmitz: What can Donald Trump regulate by decree? badische-zeitung.de , February 3, 2017
Individual evidence
- ^ American Presidency Project: Executive Orders: Washington – Trump
- ↑ 13224 ( memento of March 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), here in relation to Abdul Majeed al-Zindani , with subsequent general remarks on 13224
- ↑ Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan , 293 US 388 (1935), relating to Executive Order 6199 - Regulating the interstate commerce of petroleum (1933); ALA Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States , 295 US 495 (1935), regarding Executive Order 6675-A - Approval of code of fair competition for the live poultry industry of the metropolitan area in and about the City of New York (1934)
- ^ Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer , 343 US 579 (1952), regarding Executive Order 10340 - Directing the Secretary of Commerce to take possession of and operate the plants and facilities of certain steel companies (1952)
- ^ Chamber of Commerce v. Empire , USCA-DC No. 95-5242 (1996), regarding Executive Order 12954 - Ensuring the economical and efficient administration and completion of federal government contracts (1995)
- ↑ Washington v. Trump , USCA-9 No. 17-35105 (2017)