Executive Orders Are Imperial Edicts

Presidents enjoy signing executive orders!

Once signed, executive orders have the full force of law with the benefit of the president not having to deal with Congress to pass legislation. The president need find no common ground with the Senate or House. It is similar to a king ruling by fiat instead of two co-equal branches of government finding a commonality of interest. It is anything but democratic nor was it the intent of the Founders.

President Trump has not tried to work with Congress to pass legislation, preferring executive orders. In this instance, he is just following what his 44 predecessors did before him. President Obama was not shy about signing 276 of them. Both Clinton and Bush made use of the orders most liberally with 344 and 291, respectively. The practice began with George Washington who, in his two terms, signed eight. The only president who never signed one was William Henry Harrison, and I suspect that he would have done so if he hadn’t died after only a month in office. FDR signed the most (with 3728) in his more than 12 years in office, but he had WWII and the Great Depression to contend with.

The president is given broad latitude to carry out his duties under Article 2 of the Constitution. The Founders had just fought a war against a legislature, the British Parliament, and King George. They had no intention of creating too powerful a legislative or executive branch. In the new government, each branch was to check the powers of the other.