Do executive orders trump existing law?
NEWSWEEK
19 FEB 2017 AT 08:54 ET
Quora Questions are part of a partnership between Newsweek and Quora, through which we'll be posting relevant and interesting answers from Quora contributors throughout the week. Read more about the partnership here.
Answer from William Murphy, professor of American history:
Can an executive order of the president cancel any legislation or statute of the legislature? No.
Executive orders are instructions from the president to subordinate agencies of the executive branch. Executive orders apply only to the employees and directors of those agencies. Executive orders can set policy priorities for those agencies, or they can instruct those agencies on how to interpret laws that affect their mission. Most executive orders have very little impact on most people's lives. Occasionally, however, there are significant and far-reaching executive orders.
In 1948, Harry Truman issued an executive order desegragating the U.S. armed forces. He could do this because as commander-in-chief the president decides official policy for the armed forces, and can issue orders that uniformed commanders have to obey.
In the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson ordered federal agencies that issue contracts to private businesses to refuse contracts to any business that could not demonstrate that it did not discriminate on the basis of race in hiring, promotion and salary decisions. Because there are thousands of businesses that bid for goverment contracts, this led to many businesses adopting non-discrimination policies so they would not be shut out of those contracts. However, Johnson did not order those businesses not to discriminate; he ordered the agencies under his authority not to do business with companies that did.
more
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/do-executive-orders-trump-existing-law/
= new reply since forum marked as read
