Posted on 02/04/2017 11:36:33 AM PST by Jim W N
From what I can tell, an executive order combines legislative and executive powers in one act and one office, the substance of a dictatorship. The Constitution does not allow the executive branch to make law.
"All legislative Powers granted herein shall be vested in a Congress of the United States..." (Art I, Sec 1 - U.S. Constitution).
From what I can tell, the only valid Trump executive orders may be those repealing Obama's stench of unconstitutional executive orders.
It's not enough to cheer Trump's good intentions in wanting to right decades of wrong-doing by the feds. Constitutionally, HOW is just as, if not more, important than WHAT when it comes to federal action. Other than overturning Obama's surfeit of unconstitutional executive orders, which of Trump's executive orders are not unconstitutional and shouldn't first be passed as law in Congress?
WE THE PEOPLE need to be more than semi-mindless cheerleaders for "our side". We need to be watchdogs verifying the constitutionality of federal acts including those done by those we have elected. "Trust but verify", Ronald Reagan said in reference to treaties which effectively is the same as electing government officials. "Trust but verify" is exactly what we the people should be doing with our elected officials including Trump.
Tyranny on the Right is just as dangerous as tyranny on the Left because "benevolent" tyranny will sooner or later become very malignant, malevolent, and deadly tyranny.
We the people must once again understand that freedom comes from the feds being constrained by the objective Rule of Law (in America that is the Constitution) and tyranny comes from the feds unrestrained and limited only by their own subjective whimsy and morality - the rule of man.
In America, the only legal bulwark of protection of our freedoms against the tyranny of the feds is the Supreme Law of the Land, the Constitution as written and originally understood and intended. Our job in re-birthing our Free Constitutional Republic beginning here and now, is to reinstate the Constitution front and center as the Supreme Law of the Land against the feds.
I was hoping Trump would use the EO’s sparingly...and mostly for the purpose of eliminating obama’s EOs.
The problem is everything is such a mess.
And reality has been subverted.
Even if Team Trump could set this country back to its default setting.
It is just a matter of time before a greedy self serving politician, or a radical who wants to fundamentally change who we are, would distort everything again.
Right, but Trump needs to, and I hope does, understand that, unlike the job of a CEO in a firm, the job of the CEO in the federal government is constitutionally vastly more limited and constrained.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/executive-orders
You can look at the EO’s here and compare them to the laws which were on the books before being compromised by special interests. It’s a load of homework, but it’s more important that YOU educate yourself to facts rather than to try and guess whose opinions on such matters are most closely linked to truth.
“Any action” isn’t the issue. The Executive Branch making law is the issue.
I meant to close my post with this also:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
Because in addition to the laws instituted by Congress, you must also decide if those laws adhere to the original meaning of the United States Constitution, AND you need to know who among Congress represents the states, who represents the PEOPLE, and who represents government.
“I’m obviously very concerned about the seemingly unilateral executive power that Trump seems to have taken on following Obama’s dictatorial reign.”
Can executive power be anything but unilateral?
What executive orders has Trump issued that conflict with the Constitution or laws passed by Congress?
“Right or Left, the ends do not justify the means.”
What does justify the means?
Read the EO’s for yourself. Each either cites the source of authority, or is a policy directive.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/executive-orders
Trump’s Immigration EO is in line with US Code.
8 U.S. Code § 1182 - Inadmissible aliens
(f) Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by President
Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.
If the law already exists, why doesn’t he just make the govt enforce the law instead of using EO? Unless this is meant to be temporary until he gets his cabinet installed, and takes real control of these agencies. If he can’t get them in line, it’s time to start abolishing these bureaucracies.
The problem arises when EO's are issued pursuant to no particular law, but rather the mere wishes of the president to have his way. That is where Obama routinely crossed the line. His "phone and pen" crap reveals his contempt for legislative due process. An EO is not an alternative to a new law.
For the most part Trump has rolled back or clarified prior EOs. A balanced observer would acknowledge that if Trump spoke against murder that the media would claim he’d attacked pre-funeral service providers.
Several illegal Obama EOs were knocked down by the courts. There are specific legal definitions of the limits of EOs, and that is why the Seattle usurper’s ruling on Trump’s EO will also be struck down, probably with a scathing rebuke from the higher court.
A chief executive makes executive orders - I think that’s tautological. Whether you call it an order, or an action, or a memo it all amounts to the same thing; the only way to squelch that would be to remove the executive branch entirely, and have Congress decide everything directly.
Presidents who issued the most Executive Orders
Franklin D. Roosevelt: 3,721
Woodrow Wilson: 1,803
Calvin Coolidge: 1,203
Theodore Roosevelt: 1,081
Recent Presidents
Jimmy Carter: 320
Ronald Reagan: 381
George H.W. Bush: 166
Bill Clunton: 364
George W. Bush: 291
Barack Obama: 276
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php
“Unilateral” meaning combining legislative and executive action which is unconstitutional.
President Trump hasn’t done anything outside of his constitutional authority, nor has he ordered any executive branch agency to do anything not supported by statute law.
Your ‘concern’ is duly noted.
Unfortunately Jim, We are here.
The Democraps blew up the system long ago.
We must counter when that opportunity arises.
The slow process of change was whacked by FDR.
Pretty simple really, when a gargantuan federal government has insinuateditself into every aspect of human existence, the administrative decisions made by the executive of that organization cncerning how it operates will have a monstrous impact on the people. Small government was good for just this reason, but we did nothing to protect and keep it.
Some executive orders are just administrative orders — proclamations, determinations, directives, memoranda, and notices — that relate to the internal running of the executive branch.
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