Constitutionality and Scope of Presidential Executive Orders
Published 11:54 am Sunday, March 27, 2022
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Increasingly “WE THE PEOPLE” who own America, face Presidential Executive Orders that never went through Congress and are not official law.
Are Presidential Executive Orders an abuse of power of the Executive Branch, or are these orders Constitutionally legal? If so, are there any limitations on the scope of these orders?
It is made very clear in Article 1 of the Constitution that all legislative powers (making laws) reside with Congress and not the Executive Branch (the President).
Article I, Section 1 provides: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.”
An Executive Order by the President is not legislation. Instead, its purpose is to enforce laws passed by Congress. Executive Orders only apply to government employees. Executive Orders cannot subject private citizens to specific restrictions and rules. They cannot be used to pass a budget or abolish an act of Congress.
Any Executive Order that affects individuals who are not government employees violates Article I Section 1. Therefore, whenever the President issues an Executive Order that extends to all of the people, Congress and the states have a responsibility to the people to reject them.
When a President issues an unconstitutional Executive Order and Congress allows the order to stand, they violate their oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.
When an unconstitutional Presidential Executive Order is issued, Congress can not just overturn it.
Therefore, Congress has to sue the government. A lawsuit would be brought forward that the President has gone beyond his authority.
There are three ways in which an Executive Order can be overturned.
First, the President may change, supersede and revoke the order. Second, Congress may repeal an executive order if the President was acting with authority given by Congress.
Third, the courts ruled that the executive order was illegal. As with other rules issued by the government, Executive Orders are
subject to judicial review. Finally, Congress may also eliminate funding for the unlawful Presidential Executive Order.
Many past presidents have intentionally issued illegal executive orders that affected the lives of non-governmental citizens.
Joseph Biden moved into the White House on January 20, 2021. Within his first two weeks in office, he issued 30 Executive Orders dealing with various matters.
The U.S. Constitution is very clear about laws being enacted by Congress and a presidential signature. Even though such “law-making” is unconstitutional, the result is more law for the American people to endure.
No president has been given the power to create law by issuing an Executive Order. Yet, this completely unconstitutional process has become common, used by many modern-day presidents, whether Democrat or Republican. Biden has distinguished himself as the most prolific and speediest user of assumed unconstitutional power in a short time.
Numbers 30:2 (KJV) “If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.”
All Presidents, including Joe Biden, and all members of Congress take Oaths of Office to support and defend our Constitution. Oaths mean nothing to them.
America belongs to “WE THE PEOPLE.”
We are the bosses of those that we elect to the office!
We can fire them at election time.
It is way past time to forget political party affiliations and seek out and vote for proven honest politicians that we can trust to support and defend our Constitution and other laws of the land.
An writer whose column appears in several newspapers, Keith Throckmorton, Fairfax County Police (Ret), can be reached at kandpthrock@gmail.com