Are Executive Orders Constitutional?

QUESTION: You have been critical of an executive order by Biden. What will you say when Trump unleashes his flurry of executive dictated?

GV

ANSWER: The purposes of an executive order should be confined to running the government like any company CEO. Trump should withdraw the security clearance of all 51 people who falsely claimed the Hunter laptop was Russian propaganda. I believe that they are traitors to the country. I would fire each and everyone and strip them of all pensions. That would be a valid executive order, as would firing executive bureaucrats. The president is the CEO of the Executive Branch. He needs Congress’s approval to install judges in the Judicial Branch. When orders are confined to personnel inside the Executive Branch, that is within his Constitutional Power.

What I disagree with are executive orders that circumvent Congress. Biden outlawed gas water heaters. That is a question for Congress – not an executive decision any more than sending in troops or allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to target inside Russia. The Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war, not the president.

I will look at what Trump does, and my analysis will be eliminated on those lines. I disagree with FDR’s executive orders to confiscate gold and silver. I think Congress should have decided that.

The major case issued by the Supreme Court striking down a president’s executive order came about in 1952. In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, the court held struck down Executive Order 10340, issued by President Harry Truman, for seizing control of the steel manufacturers because of an anticipated union strike in the nation’s steel mills during the Korean War. The court held that President Truman lacked the constitutional or statutory power to seize private property.

The court focused on the fact that the Executive Order was not authorized by the Constitution or laws of the United States, and thus, it could not sand Pp. 343 U. S. 585-589. Moreover, no statute expressly or impliedly authorized the President to take possession of this property as he did here.

Using this criterion, Biden’s outlawing gas water heaters is arbitrary and absurd. It was unconstitutional, as many of his antics demonstrated that he assumed dictatorial power. Still, the Constitution never authorized such an exercise of power outside the administration of the Executive Branch. He has the Constitutional power to issue a pardon, but not pronounce someone guilty and imprison them without a trial in the Judiciary branch.