Revisited: Q&A EXEC ORDERS

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, Today's Q and A What Trump can and can
do via executive orders, or any president for that matter.
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(00:22):
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(00:44):
a message right there for us, maybe for a future
Q and A just like this listener takes. Good morning,
Brian calling you from Okaheley Park. What is that that
President Trump can do executive orders on certain things and
not on others? Thanks? Hey, you bet. President Trump's prolific
first week of policy changes included over two hundred total

(01:07):
executive actions, of which specifically thirty five were executive orders
issuing sweeping changes from Biden administration policies, commonly reinstating policies
Trump had in place during his first administration. By way
of comparison, President Trump only signed how many executive orders
do you think? Thirty five in the first week this

(01:27):
time around. The first time around he had signed sia,
we're at seven seven executive orders, same point President Biden.
He was busy ondoing much of what Trump put in
place four years ago. He actually had the all time
record until last week, signing a total of twenty four

(01:49):
executive orders by the end of his first week. So
what we have seen is a record pace for the
use of executive authority in carrying out policy Trump. Now.
Among President Trump's thirty five orders during that first week,
we had the resumption of southern border policies, including the
Remain in Mexico policy, ending of the Biden administration's CBP

(02:12):
one program to fly asylum seekers to the US, and more.
The orders also extended beyond what Trump had done previously,
for example, declaring two national emergencies, one on the southern border,
another pertaining to US energy policy. President also issued an
order seeking to revoke birthright citizenship from children born in

(02:32):
the US, in which at least one parent isn't legally
established within the United States. That's the one order that's
been legally impeded from taking effect as of now, as
a federal judge stayed the order, and that's kind of
a good jumping off point for this conversation. Nearly fourteen
thousand executive orders had been signed by American presidents starting

(02:54):
with George Washington. Eos are constitutionally protected direct under Article
two of the US Constitution, the Executive Powers, cause they're
addressed under Title three of the Code of Federal Regulations,
and what that means is that presidents have the full

(03:17):
effect of law with their executive actions. An executive order
carries the full effective law. Only a president can sign
or rescind executive orders, and that speaks to both the
strength and the weakness of the use of executive orders.
While eos can be issued and acted upon much more

(03:37):
quickly than passing legislation that's then signed into law by
a president, they're also just as easily removed by future
presidents with differing views, as we've commonly seen now in
terms of what a president can and cannot do. The
executive orders, I'm going to use a familiar analogy. People
will often ask, Hey, can I sue over X? Whatever

(03:57):
it is the situation is, the answer is almost always
going to be yes. Almost always yes. You could attempt
to suit just about anybody or just about any entity,
for just about anything. The question is whether there's a
case to be made or if the wrong lawsuit is
simply frivolous. Executive orders are similar. The Constitution does not

(04:22):
specifically cite what a president can and cannot do via
executive orders. There's nothing that lays out guidelines for executive orders.
With that said, effectively, the only restrictions on the use
of executive orders pertain to areas of governance that are
specifically designated to other branches of government through the Constitution. Okay,

(04:46):
so the areas that explicitly state other branches of government
have the authority on the matter include enacting laws. Obviously,
the president signs a bill into law, but they can
just sign an executive order and say that's law I
went past Congress. The president cannot make a unilateral declaration

(05:07):
of war. Congress has to be involved in that too. Likewise, taxation,
president against say taxes are going to be X. That's
all I gotta say about Congress got to do that too.
Government funding and spending ditto, that is Congress's responsibility. Legal

(05:29):
interpretation of laws. Obviously, judicial branch comes into play there,
and cabinet appointments requiring Senate approval. We're seeing that happen
right now. Okay, So enacting laws, declaration of war, taxation,
government funding, spending, legal interpretation of laws, cabinet apportment, appointments

(05:49):
that require Senate approval. Those are the only explicit limitations
on executive orders. So otherwise President is pretty much free
to use them however they see fit. Now. Of course,
just because you do have an executive order issue doesn't
mean that it's necessarily going to be determined to be legal.
You can still have those legal challenges, and it's ultimately

(06:12):
up to the judicial branch if they are going to
be allowed to stand. And on that note, thirty four
of the thirty five orders Trump issued during his first
week remaining force, with the potential for the ruling in
the birthright citizenship case to eventually be overturned. And while
the president has been historically aggressive in his use of

(06:33):
executive actions, his early success rate of ninety seven percent
pushing through policy changes, this way, it has proven to
be immediately effective. Still, for lasting policy that can transcend
administration changes, laws are needed. That is why, for example,
the Lincoln Riley Act has been such an important first

(06:53):
legislative action, and once President Trump signs it it will
become law. It won't have p affectually impact the current
legal immigration and deportation policies. There's nothing in there that
runs counter to what Trump or adds to what Trump
is already doing in reality. However, when it is signed
it into law, it will ensure that much of the

(07:14):
policy that Trump is now carrying out through his executive
order will extend it into the future and transcend administrations.