Executive Orders.... seriously, I need some help with this one

[MissMillie]

Has there ever been a ruling by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of an order written by the a President that circumvents laws made by our legislative branch?

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Off the top of my head...no. Mainly because EOs

are the President's sole domain. But the Pres is limited with these as to who in gov't the EOs are permitted to apply to. The Pres wouldn't have authority to write an EO that would rule of Senators or Represenatives. But he/she can put EOs in that apply to staff in the administration.

Is that muddy enough?

Is there a specific EO that you have in mind?

[MissMillie]

2. No, it just seems to me that these give the president a blank check

I keep hearing about the executive order for phone tapping, but there's a law on the books for that, so how does the Prez get away w/ writing an executive order that circumvents existing law?

How is that constitutional?

How does the very existence of Executive Orders remain true to the system of checks and balances set up by our founding fathers?

I'm not necessarily putting up an argument here. I truly want to be educated about this...

[rurallib]

5. believe the 'faith based initiative' was an EO after congress

refused to pass it several times. This would be a case of an EO making law.

[Village Idiot]

3. Not that I recall - and I don't believe that you will see one soon...

I believe that the idea is to OWN the judicial branch and play up the "unitary executive" to the point that by the time the Dems get the House or the Senate (or both?) back, the legislative branches will be largely unnecessary. They are almost there, and with the continued abdication of responsibility and broadened Imperial GWOT, it would not be too difficult to envision the current presidunce being "asked" to stay on after 2008 because of "national security concerns."

Welcome to the PNAC New World Order...

People have a hard time comparing any president to Hitler, but the only differences I see between Hitler and the Shrub are that Hitler was a teatotaling vegetarian...oh, ya - and Hitler actually created jobs.

[MissMillie]

4. Please understand

executive orders concern me no matter who sits in the oval office.