The history of executive orders

What do the Peace Corps, desegregation of the military, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II have in common?

They were all established by presidential executive orders, or EOs.

Executive orders are all over the news of late, as President Trump uses his presidential authority to undo many of President Biden’s EOs and to establish a slew of new ones.

Paris Climate Agreement? His EO pulled the U.S. out of that.

Gender transitions for minors under the age of 19? His EO banned those.

Birthright citizenship? His EO says that children of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. shall no longer become U.S. citizens.

Though the term “executive order” is not in the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1 grants the president executive power, but does not define it in detail, and Article II, Section 3 requires the president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

These clauses provide the legal foundation for executive orders, allowing presidents to direct government operations.

It’s important to note, however, that EOs must be based on existing laws or constitutional authority to be legal — a president cannot create law, only the Congress can do that.

Thus, if an executive order oversteps legal boundaries, it can be challenged in court or overturned by Congress through legislation.

Which brings us to the very first EO ever issued by a president.

That was signed by George Washington in 1789 to direct federal agencies on how to handle official correspondence.

For the most part, early presidents rarely issued executive orders, and their EOs were generally issued to bring routine changes to government operations.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt sure did change that tradition!

As he expanded the federal government massively — and later as America entered World War II — he used his EO authority to implement New Deal programs, economic reforms and war mobilization directives.

In 1933, he issued an EO to confiscate the American people’s gold. You could keep $100 worth of it, but, with few exceptions, you had to turn the rest of your gold over to the government in exchange for cash.

In 1935, he used an EO to create the Works Progress Administration, one of the largest government job programs in U.S. history.

And in 1942, he issued one of the most controversial EOs in history. That order demanded that 120,000 Japanese-Americans (70,000 of them citizens) be forcibly rounded up and relocated to camps in the desert — camps surrounded by barbed wire and staffed with armed guards.

From 1933 to 1945, he issued a whopping 3,721 executive orders!

How do recent presidents compare?

Trump has issued 53 EOs in his second term — so far. During his first term he issued 220.

Ronald Reagan issued the most EOs with 381. Bill Clinton had 364. George W. Bush issued 291. Barack Obama issued 276. George H.W. Bush issued 166. And Biden issued only 162.

That brings us to the boldest executive order in history: The Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863.

Using his war powers as commander in chief, he freed all enslaved people in Confederate states.

His reasoning was that it was a military necessity that would weaken the Confederacy.

Lincoln’s proclamation did not permanently end slavery — that required the 13th Amendment, which was ratified in 1865 — but it was still one of the greatest EOs in U.S. history.

See Tom Purcell’s syndicated column, humor books and funny videos featuring his dog, Thurber, at TomPurcell.com. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.