Question

1. What are executive orders and upon what powers are they based? Why are some executive orders controversial?

Answer 1

• The governing principle of the US government is the “separation of powers”. The US has three separate branches of government: the executive (the president), the legislature (Congress) and the judiciary (including the Supreme Court).
• An executive order is essentially a directive from the president about how they want federal agencies of the executive branch that report to them to use their resources to implement and execute the laws approved by Congress, as interpreted by the administration.
• As president, Trump is the head of the executive branch. This encompasses federal cabinet departments and the military. The executive is responsible for implementing the laws Congress approves. The judicial branch ensures these laws align with the US Constitution.
• The president does have limitations on their power, however. The president may not authorise action in an area in which Congress has constitutional authority without congressional approval. For example, while the president can call for taxes to be raised or lowered, only Congress can approve such an action.
• The president cannot declare war. The president can, however, authorise military action short of a war declaration.
  
• Under US system of government, the president’s authority to issue such orders (or to engage in any other form of unilateral executive action) must come from the Constitution or federal law. Put another way, an executive order can be used to execute a power the commander in chief already has. It can’t be used to give the presidency new powers.
• Why are they controversial:-This issue strikes at the heart of the interaction between the three branches of the US government: the Legislative (US Congress), who make the laws; the Executive (the President, Vice President, Cabinet etc) who carry out the laws and the Judicial (Supreme and Federal courts) which evaluate the laws.
• Presidents have to be careful with wording of executive orders, with opposition parties often accusing them of overstepping their authority and changing the law instead of working within it.
• Using too many orders also looks like a president is unable to get their agenda passed through Congress, while getting struck down by the courts is embarrassing.